} | i =O TRANSACTIONS OF lak AMERICAN Microscopical Society, ORGANIZED 1878. INCORPORATED 1891. EDITED BY THE SECRETARY. _ EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING CORNELL UNIVERSITY, 1ITHACA,-N. Y. August 21, 22 and 23, 1895. atl — oe L VOLUME XVII. i, BUFFALO, N. Y.: THE WENBORNE-SUMNER CO., PRINTERS, 1895. OFFICERS FOR 1895-96. President: A. CLIFFORD MERCER, Me Oe : : Syracuse, N. WS < LY Vice-Presidents: EDWARD PENNOCK, . é : Philadelphia, Pa. 2 O Miss V. A. LATHAM, _ Chicago, Ill. | Secretary: WiLL1aM C. Krauss, M. D., Buffalo, Ilo WE fia es . Treasurer: MAGNUS PFLAUM, . 3 ; : . Pittsburg, Pa, ELECTIVE MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. V. [ % O I >) Pa ee a: BUIGENMANN 200 Sele les 'y on eee Bloomington, Ind. Op, a HERMAN SCHRENKE, 5 : : , SR . St. Louis, Mo. Miss M. A. Boots, . Longmeadow, Mass. PAST PRESIDENTS. Ex-officio members of the Executive Board. i. R. BH. Wurp, M\D!/ 8, BR. MS., of Troy, N. Y., at Indianapolis, Ind., 1878. _ BR. H. Warp, M.D F. R-M..8., of Troy, N. YS at Buffato, N. Y¥., 1879: H. L. Switu, DL... D., F: R. M. S., of Geneva, N. Y., at Detroit, Mich., 1880. 4. J. D. Hyatt, F. R. M.S. (absent), of New York City, at Columbus, Ohio, 1881. 5. Gro. E. BLACKHAM, (M.D., F. R. M. S., of Dunkirk, N: Y.; at. Elmira, N. Y., 1882. 6. ALBERT McCauua, PH. D., F. R. M. S., of California, at Chicago, Ill., 1883. i. J. D. Cox, LL. D., F. R. M.S., of Cincinnati; Ohio, at Rochester, N. Y., 1884. 8. H. L. Stu, LL. D., F. BR. M.S., of Geneva, Nowy, at Cleveland, Ohio, 1885. 9, T. J. BURRILL, PH. D., F. R. M. S., of Champaign, IIl., at Chautauqua, N. Y., 1886. 10. Wa. A. Rogers, A. M., F. R. M. S., of Waterville, Me., at Pittsburgh, Pa., 1887. li. D. 8S. KeLuicoTtt, PH. D., F. R. M. S., of Columbus, Ohio, at Columbus, Ohio, 1888. 12. WM. J. Lewis, M. D., F. R. M. S., of Hartford, Conn., at Buffalo, N. Y., 1889. 15. GEO. E. FELL, M. D., F. R. M. S., of Buffalo,.N. Y., at Detroit, Mich., 1890. 14. Frank L. JAMES, Pu. D., M. D., F. R. M. S., of St. Louis, Mo., at Washington, D. C., 1891. 0. MARSHALL D. EWELL, M. D., F. R. M. S., of Chicago, IIL, at Rochester, N. Y., 1892. 16, Jacop D, Cox, LL. D., F. R. M: S., of Cincinnati, Ohio, at Madison, Wis., 1893. 17. Lester Curtis, M. D., F. R. M. S., of Chicago, IIL, at Brooklyn, N. Y., 1894. 18. Simon Henry Gace, B.S., of Ithaca, N. Y., vo ~ at Ithaca, N. Y., 1895. The Society does not hold itself responsible for the opinions expressed by members in its published Proceedings unless indorsed by a special vote, PROCEEDINGS or The American Microscopical Society ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. ’ The Processes of Life Revealed by the Microscope ; a Plea for Physiological Histology. Simon Henry Gace, B. S., Ithaca, N. Y. It is chatacteristic of the races of men that almost at the dawn of reflection the first question that presses for solution is this one of Life; life as manifested in men and in the animals and plants around them. What and whence is it and whither does it tend? Then the sky with its stars, the earth with its sunshine and storm, light and darkness, stand out like great mountain peaks demanding explanation. So in the life of every human being, repeating the history of his race, as the evolution-. ists are so fond of saying, the fundamental questions are first. to obtrude themselves upon the growing intelligence. There is no waiting, no delay for trifling with the simpler problems, the most fundamental and most comprehensive come immediately to the fore and alone seem worthy of consideration. But as age ad- vances most men learn to ignore the fundamental questions and to satisfy themselves with simpler and more secondary matters, as if the great realities were all understood or non-existent. No doubt to many a parent engaged in the affairs of society, politics, finance, science or art, the questions that their children put, like drawing aside a thick curtain, bring into view the funda- mental questions, the great realities; and we know again that what is absorbing the power and attention of our mature intel- lect, what perhaps in pride we feel a mastery over, are only sec- ondary matters after all, and to the great questions of our own 4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE youth, repeated with such earnestness by our children, we must confess with humility that we still have no certain answers. It behooves us then, if the main questions of philosophy and science cannot be answered at once, to attempt a more modest task, and by studying the individual factors of the problem to hope ulti- mately to put these together and thus gain some just compre- hension of the entire problem. This address is, therefore, to deal, not with life itself, but with some of the processes or phenomena which accompany its mani- festations.- But it is practically impossible to do fruitful work according to the Baconian guide of piling observation on obser- vation. This is very liable to be a dead mass, devoid of the breath of life. It is a well-known fact that the author of the Novum Organon, the key which Bacon supposed would serve as the open-sesame of all difficulties and yield certain knowledge, this potent key did not unlock many of the mysteries of science for its inventor. Every truly scientific man since the world began has recognized the necessity of accurate observation, and no scientific principle has ever yet been discovered simply by speculation ; but every one who has really unlocked any of the mysteries of nature, has inspired, made alive his observations by the imagination; he has, as Tyndall so well put it, made a scientific use of the imagination and created for himself what is known as the “ working hypothesis.” It must be confessed that for some investigators the ‘‘ hypothesis” becomes so dear that if the facts of nature do not conform to the hypothesis, ‘‘ so much the worse for the facts.’’ But for the truly scientific man, the hypothesis is destined solely to enable him to get the facts of nature in some definite order, an order which shall make appar- ent their connection with the great order and harmony which is believed to be present in the universe. If the working hypothesis fails in any essential particular he is ready to modify or discard it. For the truly inspired investi- gator, one undoubted fact weighs more in the balance than a thou- sand theories. At the very threshold of any working hypothesis for the Biol- AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 5 ogist, this question as to the nature of the energy we call life must be considered. The great problem must receive some kind of a hypothetical solution. What is its relation to the energies of light, heat, electricity, chemism and the other forms discussed by the physicist? Are its complex manifestations due only to these, or does it have a character and individuality of its own? If we accept the ordinarily received view of the evolution of our solar system, the original fiery nebula in which heat reigned su- preme, slowly dissipated part of its heat, and hurled into space the planets, themselves flaming vapors, only the protons of the solid planets. As the heat became further dissipated there ap- peared in the cooling mass manifestations of chemical attraction, compounds, at first gases, then liquids, and finally, on the cooling planets, solids appeared. Lastly upon our own planet, the earth, when the solid crust was formed and the temperature had fallen below the boiling point of water, the seas were formed and then Life appeared. Who could see, in the incandescert nebula, the liquids and solids of our planet and the play upon them of chem- ism, of light, heat, electricity, cohesion, tension, and the other manifestations so familiar to all? And yet, who is there that for a moment believes that aught of matter or energy was created in the different stages of the evolution? They appeared or were manifested just as soon as the conditions made it possible. So it seems to me that the energy called Zzfe manifested itself upon this planet when the conditions made it possible, and it will cease to manifest itself just as soon as the conditions become suffi- ciently unfavorable. It was the last of the forms of energy to ap- pear upon this planet and it will be the first to disappear. In brief, it seems to me that the present state of physical and physiological knowledge warrants the assumption, the working hypothesis, that Z2fe is a form of energy different from those con- sidered in the domain of physics and chemistry. This form of energy is the last to appear, last because more conditions were necessary for its manifestations. It, like the other forms of energy, - requires a material vehicle through which to act, but the results produced by it are vastly more complex. Like the other ener- 6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE gies of nature it does not act alone. It acts with the energies of the physicist, but as the master; and under its influence the mani- festations pass infinitely beyond the point where for the ordinary energies of nature it is written ‘‘thus far and no farther.” It can be stated without fear of refutation that every physiolog- ical investigation shows with accumulating emphasis that the manifestations of Zvzwg matter are not explicable with only the forces of dead matter, and the more profound the knowledge of the investigator the more certain is the testimony that the Life energy is nota mere name. And, strange to say, the physicist and the chemist are most emphatic in declaring that life is an energy outside their domain. The statements of a chemist, a physicist and a biologist are added. From the character and attainments of these men, their testimony, given after years of the most earnest investigation and reflection, is worthy of consideration:— When Liebig was asked if he believed that a leaf or a flower could be formed or could grow by chemical forces, he answered: “T would more readily believe that a book on chemistry or on botany could grow out of dead matter by chemical processes.”’ “The influence of animal or vegetable life on matter is infin- itely beyond the range of any scientific inquiry hitherto entered on. Its power of directing the motions of moving particles, in the demonstrated daily miracle of our human free will, and in the growth of generation after generation of plants from a single seed, are infinitely different from any possible result of the fortuitous concourse of atoms; and the fortuitous concourse of atoms is the sole foundation in philosophy on which can be founded the doc- ' trine that it is impossible to derive mechanical effect from heat otherwise than by taking heat from a body at a higher tempera- ture, converting at most a definite proportion of it into mechan- ical effect, and giving out the whole residue to matter at a lower ~temperature.”—Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). “The anagenetic [vital] energy transforms the face of nature by its power of assimilating and recompounding inorganic matter, and by its capacity for multiplying its individuals. In spite of AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. ~I the mechanical destructibility of its physical basis (protoplasm) and the ease with which its mechanisms are destroyed, it success- fully resists, controls and remodels the catagenetic [physical anc chemical] energies for its purpose.’”’—Cofe. What, then, are the manifestations of the life energy ? and what are the processes which are discernible? All of us in whatever walk of life will recognize the saying of Gould :—‘‘ Now, when one looks about him the plainest, largest fact he sees is that of the distinction between living and lifeless things.”’ As life goes on and works with power where the unaided eye fails to detect it, the microscope—marvelous product of the life energy in the brain of man, shows some of these hidden proc- esses. It has done for the infinitely little on the earth what the telescope has done for the infinitely great in the sky. Let us commence with the little and the simple. If a drop of water from an aquarium, stream or pool is put under the micro- scope many things appear. It is a little world that one looks into, and like the greater one that meets our eye on the streets, some things seem alive and some lifeless. As we look we shall probably find, as in the great world, that the most showy is liable in the end to be the least interesting. In the microscopic world there will probably appear one or more small rounded masses which are almost colorless. If one of these is watched, lo! it moves, not by walking or swimming, but by streaming itself in the direction. First a slender or blunt knob appears, then into it all of the rest of the mass moves, and thus it has changed its position. If the observation is continued this living speck, which is called an amceba, will be seen to approach some object and retreat, indeed, it comports itself as if sensitive, with likes and dislikes. If any object suitable for food is met in its wanderings the living substance flows around it, engulfs it and dissolves the nutrient portions and turns them into its own living substance ; the lifeless has been rendered alive. If the eye fol- lows the speck of living matter, the marvels do not cease. After it has grown to a certain size, as if by an invisible string, it con- >? stricts itself in the middle and finally cuts itself in two. The 8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE original amoeba is no more, in its place there are two. Thus nearly at the bottom of the scale of life are manifested all of the fundamental features—the living substance moves itself, takes nourishment, digests it and changes non-living into living sub- , Stance and increases in size; it seems to feel and to avoid the dis- , agreeable and choose the agreeable, and finally it performs the miracle of reproducing its kind, of giving out its life and sub- stance to form other beings, its offspring. I 200 Vinsytlon ’ | Choice oe Nutrition , 4 4 _. Big 1. The Amoeba in its various phases of activity—Locomotion, Ghoice (irritability), Nutrition and Reproduction. The figures should be read from left to right, as with words in a book. (p.) Pseudopod ; (¢.) Crystal of substance distasteful to the amoeba, hence the amoeba withdraws from it ; (f.) Food ingested and digested by the amoeba for its nourishment. AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 9 The indigestible matter (w.) is extruded from the body and left behind. (n.) Nucleus. This is seen to divide first in reproduction, then the division of the cell body is completed, thus giving rise to two individuals.* It is the belief of many biologists that the larger and complex forms even up to man himself may be considered an aggregation of structural elements originally more or less like the amceba just described; but instead of each member of the colony, each indi- vidual itself carrying on all the processes of life independently, as with the amceba, there is a division of labor. Some move, some digest, some feel, think and choose, some give rise to new beings, all change lifeless matter into their own living substance, The processes and phenomena by which a new individual is produced are included under the comprehensive term, Améry- ology. All organisms great or small are but developments of minute germs budded off by the parent or parents, and the way in which these minute beginnings develop into perfect forms like their par- ents can only be followed by the aid of a microscope. Indeed in no field of biology has the microscope done such signal service in revealing the processes of life. The method of the production of a new being with the amceba, as we have just seen, is for the parent to give itself entire to its offspring—the parent ceasing to be in producing its offspring. With some other lowly forms a part of the body of the parent buds out, grows and finally falls off as an independent organism, or re- mains connected with the parent to form a colony. In the vege- table world a familiar example of a colony is represented by the plant that the children call “Old Hen and Chickens.” In the higher animals, however, where specialization has been carried to its extreme limit, some myriads of cells forming the body are set apart to produce motion, others digest food, still others think and feel, while comparatively few, the germ cells are destined for the continuation of the race. In the higher and highest forms especially, all observation goes to show that the life energy, not satisfied with the mere vitilization of matter and a *The figures illustrating this address were drawn by Mrs. Gage. 10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE dead level of excellence, is aiming at perpetual ascent, greater mastery over matter and its physical forces. For the more cer- tain attainment of this end, the production of offspring is no longer possible for one individual ; two wholly separate individ- uals must join, each contributing its share of the living matter which is to develop into a new being. In this way the accumu- lated acquirements of two are united with the consequent increase in the tendencies and impulses for modification, and nearly double the protection for the offspring. Thus, in striking contrast with the amceba, where the single parent gives all of itself to form offspring and in so doing disappears and loses its identity, in the higher forms, while two must unite to form the offspring, the parents remain and retain their individuality and the ability to produce still other offspring. The process by which this is accomplished may be traced step by step with the microscope. A germ cell of the father and one of the mother fuse together, and from this new procreative cell formed by the fusion of two with all their possibilities combined, the new individual arises. This certain knowledge is the result of the profound investigation of the last few years and shows the literalness of the scriptural statement, ‘‘ they shall be one flesh.”’ After this fusion of the father and mother germ cells, the single cell thus formed, like the amoeba, divides into two, and these into four and so on, but unlike the amceba all the cells remain together. Within this celular mass, as if by an unseen builder, the cells are deftly arranged in their place, some to form brain, some heart, some the digestive tract, others for movement ; so that finally from the simple mass of cells, originally so alike, arises the complex organism, fish or bird, beast or man. How _ perfectly the word offspring describes the life process in the pro- duction of this new being! That the child should resemble both father and mother is thus made intelligible, for it is a part of both. Yes, further, it may resemble grandfather or great grand- ‘father or mother, for truly it is a part of them, their life con- served and continued. ‘There is no new life, it is only a continu- ation of the old: ‘ Omne vidum ex vivo,’ all life from life. But AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. II S52 SS Tone : slain ay gc ri I: § pnteron CORT IRETR EDGE Bip = D> = | Bs J) o) 5 Bases sae S2E eSsese Be oOSS, Fig. 2. Various phases in the reproduction of one of the higher animals. In the upper series is shown the fusion of the father and mother germ- cells, in the middle series appear some of the earlier phases of segmenta- tion of the fertilized ovum. The lower figure (modified from Marshall) represents a medisection of an amphibian embryo sufficiently far advanced to show that the original cells into which the ovum divided, have differ- entiated and arranged themselves in such a manner as to form the beginnings or protons of the great systems of organs—Brain, Enteron and Heart. O. Ovum, (n) Nucleus of the ovum. ¢ This sign indicates that the ovum is a mother or female germ-cell. Z. Zotsperm. ¢ Sign indicating that the zodsperm is a father or male germ-cell. (f. pn.) Female pronucleus. (m. pn.) Male pronucleus. These two pronuclei fuse and form the nucleus of the true reproductive cell, the fertilized ovum. In the two figures at the right both signs (2 ¢) are used to indicate that both germ cells are rep- resented in each figure. F. O. Fertilized Ovum. That is the true repro- ductive cell composed of a father or male, and a mother or female germ- cell fused. The steps of the fusion are shown in the upper series. s.n. Segmentation nucleus. 2c. s. Two-cell stage, that is the fertilized 12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ovum has divided once forming two (compare the reproduction of the amoeba). 4¢.s. Four-cell stage ; bl. blastula stage in which the fer need ovum has divided into very many cells, all remaining together. Embryo. The division of the ovum has proceeded very far, and the cells have begun to differentiate and form organs. Brain, ch. Body axis or notochord, Hnteron or alimentary canal and Heart. the demonstration of this prime fact required a microscope, and it is an achievement of the last half of this century. How counter this statement still is to the common belief of mankind we may perhaps better appreciate if we recall our own youth, and remember with what absolute confidence we expected the stray horse hairs we had collected and placed in water to turn into living snakes.* The belief that it is an every-day occurrence or living beings to arise from lifeless matter was not by any means confined to those uneducated in biology. It was held by many scientific men within the memory of most of us. Indeed this goblin of spontaneous generation, even for the scientific world, has been laid low so recently that the smoke of battle has scarcely yet cleared from the horizon. In the complex body of animals, as stated above, the constitu- ent elements perform different functions. Is there any hint of the way in which the action is accomplished? Let us glance at two systems, the nervous and the glandular,widely different in struct- ure and function. All know how constantly the glands are called into requisition, the salivary glands for saliva, those of the stomach and the pancreas for their digestive juices, etc. If we take now the pancreas as an example, and that of a living, fast- “Reference is here made to the nematoid worm Gordius. This worm lives a part of its life as a parasite in the larvee of aquatic insects and in some fish. In the adult free condition it differs markedly from the larval, parasitic stage, and is very slender and much elongated, often reaching a length of 20 to 80 centimeters (8to 10 inches), and has the general appearance of a coarse hair like that from the tail of a horse. It lives in water and in wet places and frequently appears in horse troughs and the wet places where the trough overflows. From the hair-like appearance it was and Still is believed that a hair from the horse’s tail or mane had directly trans- formed into a living creature. By many persons itis called a hair-snake, by others a hair-worm. Often one or several become tangled in an al- most inextricable knot, whence the name from the famous “‘Gordian Knot.” AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 13 ing animal is put under the microscope so that its constituent cells can be observed, it will be seen that they are clouded, their outlines and that of their nuclei being vague and _ indistinct. The cell is apparently full of coarse grains. If now the animal is fed, as the digestion proceeds. the pancreas pours out its juice. At the same time the granules, and with them the cloudiness, gradually disappear, the cells become clear and both they and their nuclei are sharply outlined. That is, the substance which is to form the pancreatic juice is stored in the cells in the form of granules during the periods of rest, and held until the digestive agent is demanded, and if the demand is great all the granules may be used up. But as soon as the demand ceases the cells begin again their special vital action and again the granules begin to appear and increase in number until finally the cells become so full that they are fully charged and again ready to pour forth the digestive fluid. This is a daily, almost an hourly process. Let us take another example in which it would almost appear that there is organic memory on the part of the gland cells. No doubt all have seen the clear jelly-like masses surrounding the eggs of frogs and salamanders. Whence comes this jelly that is so resistent to the agents that work so quickly the de- struction of ordinary organic matter? As spring advances the cells of the oviduct increase enormously in size. The microscope shows this increase to be due to a multitude of clear granules. As the eggs move along, the ova are coated with the jelly formed from the granules given out by the cells. As this material for the jelly is poured out the cells gradually shrink to their original size and then wait another twelve months before doing their des- tined work. If one can thus catch a glimpse of some of the finer processes taking place in gland action, how is it with nervous action, the highest function of which living matter is capable? While it has been known for a long time that the nervous system is the organ of thought and feeling and the director and co-ordinator of the motions of the body, and many speculations had been made concerning the processes through which the nervous tissue passes 14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ; Charged Discharging Discharged ¥% Fig. 3. Sections of a gland in various phases of activity. The upper series represents the gland as in longisection or lengthwise and the lower series in transection or cut across. In the longisections, (lJ) in the right hand figure represents the cavity or lumen of the gland into which the secretion of the gland is poured. Thearrows at the top represent the direc- tion taken by the secretion when it is poured out. In the lower right hand figure, (1) represents the lumen, (n) the nucleus of one of the cells, and (el. b.) the cell body of the same cell. The words Charged, Discharging and Discharged designate the various phases of the gland activity. The process of becoming recharged is not shown. in performing its functions, it was left to an American student, Dr. Hodge, to first successfully show that there were visible changes through which the nervous system passes in its work. AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 15 The question is, can the activity of the nervous system be traced as surely by changes occurring in the living matter forming its basis, as the action of a gland can be seen by the study of the gland cells ? The demonstration is simple now that the method has been shown. No doubt everyone has had the experience of failing to perform some difficult muscular action at one time and then at another of doing it with ease, or of finding true the reverse of the adage, “ practice makes perfect.” For example, in a trial of skill, as in learning to ride a bicycle, all the complicated action may be performed with considerable ease and certainty at the beginning of a lesson, when one is fresh, but as the practice con- tinues the results become progressively less and less successful, and finally with increasing weariness there is only failure, and one must rest. We say the muscles are tired ; this is true in part, but of much greater importance is the fatigue of the nervous system, as this furnishes the impulses for the action and co- ordination of the muscles. Now, as muscular action can be seen and the amount can be carefully controlled, here was an exact indicator of the time and amount of the nervous activity. Furthermore, as animals have two similar sides, one arm or leg may work and the other remain at rest, and con- sequently corresponding sides of the nervous system may be active and at rest. By means of electrical irritation one arm of a cat or other animal was caused to move vigorously for a considerable time, the other arm remaining at rest. Then the two sides of the nervous system, that is, the pairs of nerves to the arms with their ganglia and a segment of the myel (spinal cord) were removed and treated with fixing agents, and ‘carried through all the processes necessary to get thin sections capable of accurate study with the microscope. Finally upon the same glass slide are parts of the nervous system fatigued even to ex- haustion, and corresponding parts of the same animal which had been at rest. Certainly if the nervous substance shows the re- sult or processes of its action the conditions are here perfect. Fatigued nerve cells are side by side with those in a state of rest. * 56 PROCEEDINGS OF THE The appearances are clear and unmistakable; the nucleus markedly decreased in size in the fatigued cells and posse jagged, irregular outline in place of the smooth, rounded for the resting cells. The cell substance is shrunken in size a possesses clear scattered spaces, or a large clear spa rout —Santel Bal the nucleus. Rest Honey Bee 45 Rest Atos Fatigue \ Fig. 4. Figures from Hodge (Jour. Morphology, Vol. VIL), showi changes in the nerve cells of the spinal ganglia, in the cat and of the brs in the honey-bee. The words Rest and Fatigue indicate the appearance the cells in these two conditions. (n) Nucleus, (cl. b.), cell body, clear space around the shrunken nucleus in the fatigued cells. ° AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 17 If the nervous substance was not fixed at once but remained in the living animal for 12 to 24 hours in a state of repose, the signs of exhaustion disappeared and the two sides appeared alike. By studying preparations made after various periods of repose all the stages of recovery from exhaustion could be followed. For possible changes in normal fatigue, sparrows, pigeons and swallows and also honey-bees were used. For example, if two sparrows or two honey-bees as nearly alike as possible were se- lected, the nervous system of one being fixed in the morning after the night’s rest and that of the other after a day of toil, the changes in the cells of the brain of the honey-bee or sparrow and in the spinal ganglia of the sparrow were as marked as in case of artifi- cial fatigue. After prolonged rest, then, the nerve cells are, so to speak, charged, they are full and ready for labor, but after a hard day’s work they are discharged, shrunken and exhausted. There is one more step in this brilliant investigation. If in the morning, after sleep and rest, animals and men are full of vigor, and in the evening are weary and exhausted, how like is it to the beginning and end of life? In youth so overflowing with vigor that to move, to act, is pleasure and continued rest a pain; but in the evening of life a warm corner and repose are what we try to furnish those whose work is done. How is this correlated in the cells of the nervous system with the states of rest and fatigue ? With a well-nourished child which died from one of the accidents of birth the nerve cells showed all the characters of cells at rest and fully charged. Ina man dying naturally of old age the cells showed the shrunken nuclei and all the appearances of exhaust- ing fatigue. In the one was the potentiality of a life of vigorous action, the other showed, the fizal fatigue, the store of life energy had been dissipated and there was no recovery possible. For the animals that possess an undoubted nervous system, probably all would admit that there is some sort of nervous action corresponding to sensation; but what of living matter in the hum- bler forms where no nervous system can be found? That these have vital motion, that they breathe, nourish themselves, grow and produce offspring none can deny. Do they have anything 18 ; PROCEEDINGS OF THE comparable with sensation? As most of the lowest forms are minute, the microscope comes to our aid again, and in watching these lowliest living beings, it is found that they discriminate and choose, going freely into some portions of their liquid world and withdrawing from other portions. If some drug which is unusal or we must believe disagreeable is added to a part of the water, they withdraw from that part. It seems to have the same effect as disagreeable odors on men and animals. On the other hand there are substances which attract and into the water containing these they enter with eagerness. Strange is it, too, that, as proved by experiment, if an unattractive substance is used and also one on the other side that has been found still more unattractive, the less disagreeable is selected, the less of. the two evils is chosen. As man, the horse, dog and many other animals adapt them- selves gradually to temperatures either very cold or very warm, and that, too, by a change in their heat-regulating power rather than by a change of hairy or other clothing, so these lowly or- ganisms are found in nature in water at temperatures from near freezing up to 60 or 80 degrees centigrade, a point approaching that of boiling water. It may be answered that each was created for its place, but by means of a microscope and a delicate ther- mostat, to be certain of every step and to see all the results, Dr. Dallinger, through a period of seven years, accustomed the same unicellular organism and its progeny to variations of temperature from 15 to 20 degrees centigrade, z. e., about the temperature of a comfortable sitting-room, up to 70 C.. For those at the cooler temperature it was death to increase rapidly the heat 1o degrees, and for those at the higher temperature it was equally fatal to lower it to the original temperature of 15 to 20 degrees. These examples seem to show that it is one of the fundamental char- acteristics of living substance, whether in complex or simple forms, to adapt itself to its environment. There is another fact in nature that the microscope has revealed and that fills the contemplative mind with wonder and an aspira- tion to see a little farther into the living substance and so per- AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 19 chance discover the hidden springs of action. This fact may be called cellular altruism. In human society the philanthropist and - soldier are ready at any time to sacrifice themselves for the race or the nation. With the animals, the guards of the flock or herd are equally ready to die in its defense. So within each of the higher organisms the microscope has shown a guarding host, the leucocytes or white-blood corpuscles. The brilliant discoveries in the processes. of life with higher forms have shown that not only is there a struggle for existence with dead nature and against forms as large or larger than themselves, but each organism is liable to be undermined by living forms, animal and vegetable, infinitely smaller than themselves, insig- nificant and insiduous, but deadly. Now to guard the body against these living particles and the particles of dust that would tend to clog the system there isa vast army of amceba-like cells, the leucocytes, that go wherever the body is attacked and do _battle. If the guards succeed the organism lives and flourishes, otherwise it dies or becomes weakened and hampered. This much was common scientific property three years ago, when one of our members (Miss Edith J. Claypole) came to my laboratory for advanced work. I discussed with her what has just been given and told her that there still remained to be solved the problem, what becomes of the clogging or deleterious ‘material which the leucocytes have taken up? These body guards are, after all,a part of the organism, and for them simply to engulf the material would not rid the body entirely of it, and finally an in- evitable clogging of the system would result. The problem is simple and definite ; what becomes of the deleterious substances, bacteria and dust. particles that get into the body and become engulfed by the leucocytes? Fortunately, for the solution of this problem, in our beautiful Cayuga Lake, there is an animal, the Necturus, with external gills through which the blood cir- culates for its purification. So thin and transparent is the cover- ing tissue in these gills that one can see into the blood stream almost as easily as if it were uncovered. Every solid constituent of the blood, whether red corpuscle, white corpuscle, microbe or 20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE particle of dust, can be seen almost as clearly as if mounted on a microscopic slide. Into the veins of this animal was injected some lampblack mixed with water, a little gum arabic and ordinary salt, an entirely non-poisonous mixture. Thousands of particles of car- bon were thus introduced into the blood and could be seen circu- lating with it through the transparent gills. True to their duty the white corpuscles in a day or two engulfed the carbon par- ticles, but for several days more the ieucocytes could be seen cir- culating with the blood stream and carrying their load of coal with them. Gradually the carbon-laden corpuscles disappeared and only the ordinary carbon-free ones remained. Where had the carbon been left? Had it been simply deposited somewhere in the system? The tissues were fixed and serial sections made. The natural pigment was bleached with hydrogen dioxid so that if any carbon was present it would show unmistakably. With the exception of the spleen no carbon appeared in the tissues, but in many places the carbon-laden leucocytes were found. In mucous cavities and on mucous surfaces and on the surface of the skin were many of them; in the walls of organs were many more apparently on their way to the surface with their load; that is the carbon is actually carried out of the tissues upon the free sur- faces of the skin and mucous membranes where, being outside of the body, it could no more interfere in any way with it. But what is the fate of the leucocytes that carry the lampblack out of the tissues? They carry their load out and free the body, but they themselves perish. They sacrifice themselves for the rest of the body as surely as ever did soldier or philanthropist for the betterment or the preservation of the state. Thus I have tried to sketch in briefest outline some of the phe- nomena or processes of life revealed by the microscope. Most of those discussed have come under my own personal observa- tion and are therefore to me particularly real and instructive. But to every one long familiar with the microscope and with the literature of biology many other examples will occur, some of them even more striking. The discussion has been confined to AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 21 Gill Filament of Necturus Leucocytes. Emigrating Fig. 5. These figures represent various steps in the removal of foreign matter from the blood of Necturus. Gill Filament of Necturus. Part of a single gill filament greatly magni- fied to show the blood vessels containing the red blood corpuscles (7. be.) and the leucocytes (/.) or white-blood corpuscles. The black dots (c.) within the blood vessels represent carbon particles which had been injected into the veins. In many of the leucocytes are several carbon particles, there are also several shown free in the blood plasma. (g. ¢.) The tissue of the gill filament between the bluod vessels. Leucocytes Emigrating. This, the lower figure, represents a section of the skin with its covering epithelium (ep.) and the corium (cor.) or true skin. The leucocytes containing carbon particles (c.) are seen in the corium and penetrating the epithelium and finally free outside the epithelium. The arrows indicate that the leucocytes emigrate from the body through the corium and the epithelium, and finally into the space outside the epithelium. 22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE the above also because it seems to me to show with great clear- ness the way in which we can justifiably hope to do fruitful work in the future. This sure way, it seems to me, is the study of structure and function together ; the function or activity serving as a clue and stimulus to the investigator for finding the mechan- ism through which function is manifested and thus give due sig- nificance to structural details which, without the hint from the function, might pass unnoticed. This kind of microscopical study may be well designated as Physiological Histology. t is in sharp contrast with ordi- nary histology in which too often the investigator knows nothing of the age, state of digestion or of fasting, nervous activ- ity, rest or exhaustion. Indeed, in many cases it is a source of congratulation if he knows even the name of the animal from which the tissue is derived. Such haphazard observation has not in the past, and is not likely in the future to lead to splendid results. If structure, as I most firmly believe, is the material expression of function and the sole purpose of the structure is to form the vehicle of some physiological action, then the structure can be truly understood only when studied in action or fixed and studied in the various phases of action. : Indeed if one looks only for form or morphology in the study of histology the very pith and marrow is more than likely to be lost.* For example, if one wished to study the comparative histology *Although in a different field, the words of Osborn in discussing the un- known factors of evolution are so pertinent that they may well be quoted: “My last word is, that we are entering the threshold of the Evolution problem, instead of standing within the portals. The hardest task lies be- fore us, not behind us. We are far from finally testing or dismissing these old factors [of evolution], but the reaction from speculation upon them is in itself a silent admission that we must reach out for some unknown quantity. If such does exist there is little hope that we shall discover it except by the most laborious research ; and while we may predict that con- clusive evidence of its existence will be found in morphology, it is safe to add that the fortunate discoverer will bea physiologist” [armed with a mi- croscope|. I would like to add the last four words. S. H. G.. Am. Nat., May, 1895. . Par ares —————————— PT \ o AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 23 of the pancreas and were to take pieces from various animals to be compared without regard to their condition of fasting or di- gestion, he might find the coarser anatomical peculiarities in each. In all probability he would also find two distinct structural types. One type with clearly-defined cells and nuclei, the other with the cells clouded, filled with granules and with the outlines of cells and their nuclei almost indiscernible. Between these there might be various gradations in the different forms. And yet, from what has been stated above it is plain that all these different structural appearances represent phases of activity, and all might have come from the self-same animal. In like manner, if certain parts of the nervous system were to be studied comparatively and the tissue taken from one animal after refreshing sleep and rest, from another after exhausting labor, another in infancy and another from an animal decrepit with years, the difference in general ap- pearance and in structural details would be striking enough to satisfy any morphologist that, as with the structure of the pan- creatic cells, there were two or more distinct types; but the physiol- ogical histologist would recognize at once that the differences so much insisted upon represented different phases of activity, and, as with the pancreatic cells, might be all represented in the same animal at different times. I would be far from saying that there are no structural differ- ences in the different animals independent of any particular phase of functional activity ; but if these only are sought and the others neglected the physiological appearances will often obtrude and confuse if they do not utterly confound. I have, therefore, for the last 10 years urged my students, and mean to go on advocating with all the earnestness of which I am capable, that’in studying an organism or its tissues, the investi- gator, to gain certain knowledge,must know all that it is possible to learn concerning the age, health, state of nervous, muscular, and digestive activity ; in fact, all that it is possible to find out about the processes of life that are going on and have gone on when the study is made. There are some microscopic forms in which the entire study 24 PROCEEDINGS OF THE can be made while the creature is alive. With the higher organ- isms, also, some of the living elements, as the white-blood cor- puscles and ciliated cells, can be studied, and their various actions and structural changes observed for a considerable time. The white-blood corpuscles or leucocytes resemble the amoeba very closely in their actions and powers, as we have seen in dis- cussing the way in which the body is freed from foreign particles. The ciliated cells are among the most striking of all the constitu- ent elements of the body. One end is fixed firmly to the tissues, the sides are in contact with their fellow cells, but the other end is free and bears great numbers of hair-like processes, the cilia, which project freely into some cavity or upon some surface. What histologist would be able for a moment to suggest the power of these hair-like processes if he studied the dead cells alone? Yet the moment these cells are studied alive under the micro- scope it is seen that for the service of the body all the powers of these cells are concentrated into one, that of motion, and all the mo- tion is manifested by the little cilia. These sweep with almost incredible rapidity in one direction and more slowly on their re- turn, thus producing a current in the direction of most rapid mo- tion. This motion with the resulting current ceases only with life. Each individual cilium is weakness itself, but with their com- bined action the untold millions covering the cells, in the air pass- ages for example, make a strong current in the liquid covering them. This current is from the interior of the lungs toward the throat and carries along with it particles of dust inhaled into the lungs. In this way the delicate breathing organs are swept clean and left unincumbered for their work of receiving oxygen and get- ting rid of carbon dioxide. If now one puts under the microscope some cells from the small intestine of almost any animal from the lamprey eel to man, the cells appear almost identical with those just described. The end projecting to the free surface of the intestine seems to have a sim- ilar brush of fine hairs, with a clear line along their base. Ifa striated and a dead ciliated cell are under the same microscope ide by side it is almost impossible to distinguish them. Indeed AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 25 Ciliated Epithelium yn z fia EPEC PSTN es Absorbing saree TE w i it PETE Maga iper aval ij ae Fig. 6. Figures showing the similarity in appearance of the absorbing epithelium of the intestine and of a ciliated epithelium. The free ends of the cells point upward toward the top of the page and the attached ends to- ward the bottom of the page. (cilia). The minute hair-like processes project- ing from the free end of the cells and constantly swinging rapidly in one direction and returning less rapidly to the starting point. In this way a current is made in the direction of the most rapid motion (indicated by the arrow). At the base of the cilia is a clear plate or segment (c. s.) In the absorbing epithelium the segment appearing like the cilia is called the striated border or segment (st. b.) and rests on a clear segment (Cc. 8.) comparable with that on which the cilia rest. In the absorbing epithelium food particles (f.) are represented as passing through the cell from the free end toward the base, as indicated by the arrow. so difficult is it that those from the intestine have been described as ciliated more than once. If both cells are living no one could confuse them. The striated end of one is motionless, the lines or cilia of the other are in constant motion. One serves for produc- 26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ing currents, always in the same direction, the other is for the pur- pose of absorbing and passing into the tissues the products of di- gestion. One is a moving the other an absorbing cell. Most of the tissue elements of the higher forms cannot be thus studied alive, however, and the best that can be done is to fix the different phases of action, as by a series of instantaneous photo- graphs, then with a kind of mental kinetoscope put these together and try to comprehend the whole cycle. . Fortunately for the histologist the incessant experimentation of the last twenty-five years has brought to knowledge chemical substances which do for the tissues the wonder that was ascribed to the mythical Gorgon’s Head,—to kill instantly and to harden into changeless permanence all that gazed upon it. So the tissues may be fixed in any phase and then studied at length. If then the investigator observes and keeps record of every point that may have an influence on the struétural appearances,whether shown by experience or suggested by insight, and this rec- ord always accompanies the specimen, thus and thus only, it seems to me, can he feel confident that he is liable to gain real knowledge from the study, knowledge that represents actuality and which will serve as the basis for a newer and more complete unraveling of the intricacies of structure, an approximate insight into the mechanism through which the -life energy manifests itself, And so, with all the light that physics and chemistry can give, commencing with the simplest problems and being careful that every factor that can influence the result is being duly considered, the microscopist can go forwaid with enthusiasm and with hope, not with the hope that the great central question can be answered in one generation, perhaps not: in a thousand, but confident that if each one adds his little to the certain knowledge of the world, then in the fullness of time the knowledge of living substance and the life processes will be so full and deep that what Life Js, though unanswered, may cease to be the supreme question. AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. . 27 BIBLIOGRAPHY. The following are a few of the works used in the preparation of the foregoing address : For general discussions of the problems treated, the works of Herbert Spencer and other philosophers may be consulted with profit. For extended references, the Index Catalog of the Library of the Surgeon General’s Office, the Index Medicus, the Physiologisches Centralblatt and the Anatomischer Anzeiger will put the reader on the track of most of the books and papers that have appeared. "7879. Bernard, Claude—Legons sur les phénoménes de la vie commune "95. So. aux animaux et aux végétaux. ‘lwo volumes, Paris, (1878-79). These volumes show, in the way only a master like Bernard could show, the essential unity of the life processes in animals and plants. Chittenden, R. H.—On digestive proteolysis, being the Cartwright lectures for 1894. New Haven, 1895, p. 187. He makes very clear that in absorption the vital activity of the epithelium is necessary, and that it is not a mere matter of physical diffusion. See p. 116, etc. . Claypole, Agnes M.—The enteron of the Cayuga Lake Lamprey. Proc. Amer. Micr. Soc., Vol. XVI. (1894), pp. 125-164, eight plates. Besides the structural changes in the physiological process of trans- formation from the larval to the adult condition, the enteric epithelium and its structural features in action are shown; also the ciliated and striated border of the enteric epithelial cells. . Claypole, Edith J.—An investigation of the blood of Necturus and Cryptobranchus. Proc. Amer. Micr. Soc., Vol. XV. (1893), pp. 39-76, six plates. This is the investigation referred to in discussing cellular altruism, p. 17 of the address. . Cope, E. D.—The Energy of Evolution. American Naturalist, Vol. XXVIII. (1894), pp. 205-219. From this paper is taken the quotation on p. 0 of the address. Dallinger, W. H.—On a series of experiments made to determine the thermal déath-point of known monad germs when the heat is endured in a fluid. Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, Vol. III. (1880), pp. 1-16. See also his Presidential] Address published in the same Journal, pp. 185-199 (1887). This investigation was carried on for nearly seven years, and organisms living normally. at a temperature of 15° to 20° centigrade were enured to a temperature of 70°C. Dr. Dallinger pointed out some of the physical appearances passed through by the organisms in their acclimatization. See also Davenport and Castle. See p. 16 of the address. i) (72) 88. "93 PROCEEDINGS OF THE . Davenport, C. B. and Castle, W. E.—On the acclimatization of organisms to high temperatures. Archiv fiir Entwickelungsmechanik der Organismen. II. Band, 2 Heft. pp. 227-249. This paper gives | in tabular form a history of the observations of various authors on acclimatization of various living forms naturally, as in the waters of hot springs, and artificially. Their own experiments on tad-poles are highly suggestive and they point out some of the chemico- physical changes occurring in the adaptation of the living substance to the unusual environments. See also Dallinger. Foster, M.—Text book of physiology. (New York and London, 1895). In this work there is stated very clearly what is known and what is not known concerning the processes of life. Gage, Simon H.—The limitations and value of histological investi- gation. Proceedings Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Vol. XXXIV. (1885), pp. 345-349. In this paper is pointed out the necessity of study- ing function as well as structure in histological investigations if any thing like a complete understanding of a tissue or organ is obtained. . Gould, George M.—The meaning and method of life. 297 pages, New York (1893). This is a most stimulating and inspiring work. The quotation on p. 5 of the address is from it. Hertwig, Oscar.—The cell, outlines of general anatomy and physi- ology, translated by M. and edited by H. J. Campbell. P. 368, 168 illustrations. (London and New York, 1895) Dr. Hertwig lays special stress on the function of the structural elements. Hodge, C. F.—A microscopical study of changes due to functional activity in nerve cells. Journal of Morphology, Vol. VII. (1892), pp. 45-168. Two plates. In this paper and the next are given the facts on which the statements concerning the changes in nerve cells mentioned in this address are based. There is also in this an excellent resumé of what is known of structural appearances due to vital activity in gland cells. Hodge, C. F.—Changes in ganglion cells from birth to senile death. Observations on man and the honey bee. Journal of Physiology, Vol. XVIL., pp. 129-134, one plate. Howell, W. H.—The Physiology of Secretion. The Reference Hand- Book of the Medical Sciences, (N. Y., 1888), pp. 363-379. In this article Dr. Howell gives a very admirable account of secretion; and bearing upon the dissimilarity of living and lifeless things says that something more than simple pbysical law is neces- sary to explain the differences. Kingsbury, B. F.—The histological structure of the enteron of Necturus maculatus. Proceedings of the American Microscopical Society, Vol. XVI. (1894), pp. 21-64, eight plates. In this paper the structural appearances accompanying activity in the enteric epithelium are described and figured. Langley, J. N.—On the histology and physiology of the pepsin form- ing glands. Philos. Trans., pp. 663-711 (1881). Metchnikoff, Elias.—Lectures on the comparative pathology of inflammation delivered at the Pasteur Institute in 1891. Translated from the French by F. A. and E. H. Starling. P. 218; three colored plates and 65 figures in the text. (London, 1893). ‘My principal object in writing this book is to show the intimate connection that exists between pathology and biology properly so called Author's preface. For the purposes of the preceding address AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 29 the parts of the book showing the activities of unicellular organisms, their attraction and repulsion by various agents and the action of the leucocytes in ridding the body of hurtful or clogging matter are of especial importance. ’95. Sedgwick, Wm. T. and Wilson E. B.—An introduction to general biology, p. 231, 105 Figs. 2d edition (N. Y., 1895.) This work emphasizes the physiological side of the organism, and the first chapters discuss with clearnesss and force the characters of living things. ’g2. Thomson, Sir Wm. (Lord Kelvin).—On the dissipation of energy. Fortnightly Review, Vol. 57 (1892), pp. 313 to 321. In this paper may be found the quotation given on p. 4 of the address and also the statement of Liebig. For this see the foot note to the article of Thomson, p. 317. ’85. Tait, P. G—Properties of matter with an appendix on hypotheses as to the eg ueupulien of matter by Prof. Flint, D. D. (Edinburgh, 1885). P. p. 320. 794.95. Thurston, R. H.—The animal as a machine and a prime motor. (N. Y., 1894). See also Science, April 5, 95, and Journal of the Franklin Institute, January-March, 95. It is shown that the animal machine is the most efficient of all known machines, and the sentiment is expressed that a comprehension of the processes of life is of as much interest to the engineer as to the physiologist. ’95. Whitman, C. O.—Evolution and epigenesis. In Biological lectures delivered at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood’s Holl, in 1894. In the prefatory note is given a discussion relating to matter and energy. See also his articles in the Journal of Morphology, Vol. I., pp. 227-252; Vol. IL, pp. 27-49; Vol. VIII., pp. 639-658. PROCEEDINGS OF The American Microscopical Society MINUTES OF THE EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING, HELD AT Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., August 21st, 22d and 23d, 1895. WEDNEsDAY, August 21, 1895. The members assembled in McGraw Hall at to minutes before 10 o'clock ; about 60 persons present. The meeting opened with the following address of welcome by the Hon. D. F. Van Vleet, of Ithaca: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Society : When I was asked, a few days ago, to makea formal address of welcome to you, I suggested to one of my good friends that, while it was something not new to my line, it would be the first time that I had submitted my humble remarks to 75 or too microscopists. I assure you that I feel rather diffident about talking to you; and yet I have words of welcome for QO which are of the best which I can give you. _ IT realize the fact that there is no body of scientists in the world who are such close observers, who have done so much and are to do so much for humanity at large, as your own society. In looking back over the history of microscopic investigation, I am amazed, upon a hasty examination, to see the great improvements which have been made in the microscope. There is, I take it, as much difference between the magnificent instruments which you have to-day, and which you are using, and the old instruments of 20 or 30 years ago, as there is between the old-fashioned churn 3? PROCEEDINGS OF THE of our grandmothers and the magnificent apparatus for separating cream and butter from milk which you may see in an adjacent build- ing. There is nothing manufactured, to my mind, where such enormous strides have been made in development, as with the microscope. I looked over hastily last evening one of your ear- lier reports. I found there that a great deal of time was given to the discussion of the proper forms of the microscope and its mech- anism. Then out of curiosity I turned to your last report, and I found there that you are discussing questions of the greatest importance to the human race; so that I take it that you have now, ladies and gentlemen, a perfect piece of mechanism; and your usefulness as a society, it seemed to me—as a layman in- tensely interested in the work which you are doing—your useful- ness to humanity at large is but just beginning. Already, if you wish to see an object lesson, let me state to you that this little city where you are welcomed as guests, is expending something like $500,000—just beginning the work. And why ?—because you, ladies and gentlemen of the microscope, have shown to the people that there is that in sewage which is an enemy to the human race; and so all over this country, not only in the little city of Ithaca, but every- where, the results of your investigations are bearing fruit for the bettering of mankind. : Therefore, while your members are increasing, while the work that you have done in the past has been of the greatest import- ance, I predict that the next 10 years of your existence as a So- ciety will bring about far greater results than ever before. I do not believe that there is a body of men in the United States who have it within their grasp to do more for humanity, to do more for the world at large, than your association. Therefore I hope and trust that your deliberations will con- tinue year after year, that you will continue to do the good work already started and which is as yet in its infancy. Now, in behalf of the mayor of this, our beautiful city, it is my function to welcome you. Ithaca is one of the most beautiful, one of the proudest little cities on earth. It is proud of its hills AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 33 and its valleys, proud of its lake, its streams, its waterfalls, proud of its university, and proud to be the host of guests like you. In behalf of the mayor, therefore, of the city of Ithaca, I extend to you a most cordial welcome. We welcome every year here hundreds of guests ; we were never so proud to welcome a body of people as we are to welcome you, the leading scientists of America, who have seen fit to honor us and the great university which we love, by your presence. In behalf of the 3,000 alumni who have graduated from the halls of this university, and who love it as they love nothing else on earth except their families, in behalf of that body of alumni I welcome you. There have gone out from these halls men well equipped to grapple with all the problems of this life. Some of them are of your number ; and the alumni of Cornell University, young though they are in years, stand before you, representative scientists, as men who have taken the front rank. Cornell Uni- versity has graduateda Jordan, a Comstock, a Gage, your honored President ; and I might stand here an hour and tell you, ladies and gentlemen, what the alumni of this university have done. Therefore, in behalf of them, and I am sure every single one of them would like to be present here and greet you and take you by the hand—in behalf of them, as their present executive officer, I greet you and welcome you, and say to you that we desire, when you leave this, our alma mater, that you will carry with you the idea that Cornell University is well equipped to do the great work that it is doing, and that it is doing much to further the interests represented by the society to which you belong. Then, too, in behalf of the President of the university, who is absent and who has delegated to me the task of welcoming you ; in behalf of the university I would state to you that the univer- sity is open to you, every department of this great university greets and welcomes you. I doubt—of course I am prejudiced, but I doubt if anywhere throughout the length and breadth of this great land there is such another institution of learning as this institution whose guests you are. Each of you should con- sider yourself a guest of this university. You are here once 34 PROCEEDINGS OF THE out of 18 years—I think this is your 18th annual meeting. I am sure that I voice the sentiment of Cornell University when I say to you that it would be the greatest pride to the university if every meeting of your association might be here. I am sure I voice the thought of the President of the university and of its professors and of its alumni when I say that if this association could meet here every year, and make here every summer a creat department of a great university, it would further the ends for which you are working, that it would be of greatest advantage to you, that it would be of greatest honor to Cornell University. In behalf of the university, therefore, in behalf of every citizen of this little city, whether great or small, I desire to welcome you, to say to you that our latch-strings are all hanging out, that we desire among other things most of all to greet you, to meet you, to become friends, to know you, to feel that we are honored in doing so. Your time here is limited. We regret it. We wish that instead of three days your stay could be extended to three weeks. We wish that all the beauty of this most beautiful coun- try, that all the advantages of this, one of the greatest universities, all of its departments, everything which it has stored here in its laboratories and in its museums, might be yours to inspect and enjoy for weeks, aye, months. Again expressing to you for every citizen, for every alumnus, for every person connected with Cornell University, a most hearty welcome, I venture to say that it is our belief that when you leave us to go away you will come back to us again, and you can not come back too often, you can not stay too long. The President, Professor S. H. Gage, then made the following ' response to the address of welcome. Mr. Van Vleet: In behalf of this society I want to thank you most cordially for this welcome. Last year, owing to circumstances over which we had no control, one of the accidents that it is impossible to fore- see, our meeting was not as successful as in some years. There was a feeling on the part of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, that great association in this country which AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 35 covers all knowledge, that it was time that it carried its benefits out on the Pacific Slope. You know, sir, that we have sent some of our good men out there to carry the good tidings ; they have been welcomed, and the whole association was going there. This society was going asa feeble part of it. Owing to hard times and various other things, that desire was not consum- mated, and the American Association is now to meet in Spring- field. The question then arose, where shall this society meet ? It seemed tome, sir, that as so many members of the society whom I had met pleasantly had asked about the university, that they would like to come here to it; and I wanted them to come here to see what our laboratories are like, to see our beautiful campus -and city. I went to the president of the university and asked him concerning it, and I was surprised at the heartiness with which he acceded to every suggestion and the earnestness with which he said that of all things which could come to the univer- sity such meetings would give him the greatest pleasure. I went then from him with his assurance as head of the university, to the various professors, and everywhere was the same cordiality, the same readiness to do everything that was possible to help in making the meeting a success and in greeting its members. Then some of us went down town; and with some hesitation, perhaps you remember, I went to you, and asked you to be a member of the local committee. At your hearty consent to help us I felt encouraged. The chairman of the local committee, Dr. Rowlee, of whom I can not speak too highly for the efforts he has made, went to other men in the town. The same cordiality was met everywhere ; and so instead of there being town and gown in this welcoming of us, there is only one, either all town or all gown, whichever you wish to call it. Now, then, to come back to the serious question, that is, whether this society, whether we are worthy of this confidence, this cordiality. In the past, as you have said in your remarks, there has been work done in the society which I think has gone for the advancement of knowledge. The question is, the main 306 PROCEEDINGS OF THE question for us as a society is, whether in the work which we are still to do are we going to add to human knowledge? If it does add to human knowledge, and therefore to the possibility of human happiness, it will add also to the security and honor of the nation. I feel sure, sir, that I voice the sentiment of every member of this society in saying that we will do everything we can to be worthy of your confidence, of your cordiality. And thanking you again for this greeting to our society, I now declare the meeting open for the business of the day. The names of a number of new members were then read as recommended by the executive committee, and by resolution the secretary cast the ballot of the society for them and they were declared elected. They will be found in the list of members at the end of the volume. Mr. Pflaum, of Pittsburg, then read a paper on “‘ Alleged Me- teoric Dust.”’ After the reading Prof. Kellicott said: I would like to inquire the relative size of the particles found in Calcutta and at Pittsburg. Mr. Pflaum: The size given for those there was from z75¢ of an inch to gs}; ofan inch. But I found them far smaller. The very smallest were but sa¢¢ of an inch. I do not believe that the slide I have here gives the smallest, because I tried to seperate as closely as possible the dross and dust from the shot itself. Of course there were larger ones too. But the size seems immate- rial. Under what conditions these grains are found I do not know. But I imagine this: The iron and the silicious matter in the iron becomes liquefied by the heat. When it rises from the chimney it is cooled a little and under pressure from all directions takes on a spherical form. Mr. Seaman: There is only one question regarding this paper, which seems to be of peculiar interest, and that is the way these particles may be transported, not necessarily from the Pittsburg blast furnaces, but even from those somewhere nearer by. Now some of you may remember a few years ago there was an erup- tion in the Indian Ocean that is known by the name of the erup- tion of Krakatoa. I think very few in this country have any AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 37 idea of the tremendous character of that eruption, which threw such volumes of dust into the atmosphere that it was supposed fully one half of the surface of the earth had the sun somewhat obscured and a yellowish haze in the atmosphere from the dust with which the air was filled by that eruption. I am not pre- pared to say that this was satisfactorily demonstrated, but it cer- tainly is the best explanation which has been given of certain atmospheric phenomena observed at that time. Of course that eruption .was upon an enormous scale—a scale that has not been paralleled since the destruction of Pompeii. Those of you who wish to look into that matter will find in the Cosmopolitan for April, 1895, a description of that scene by an eye-witness, which certainly surpasses anything I know in literature since the description of the destruction of Pompeii by Pliny. It will give you an idea of the immensity of that phenomenon by which the air was filled with this fine dust. Mr. Hermann Schrenk then read a paper on the ‘ Corky Out- growth of Roots, and their Connection with Respiration.” Professor Gage said at the end of the paper: I imagine some of you who have been listening to Mr. Schrenk’s paper have been somewhat astonished by his speaking about plants using oxygen. I was brought up on the pleasing theory that plants do not breathe oxygen, but carbonic acid gas, and only animals oxygen. Mr. Schrenk has been talking to you about organisms developed by plants for the purpose of breathing oxygen. If you think for a moment that the use of carbonic acid gas for a plant is simply like our use of beaf steak, if you remember that plants, just as we do, require oxygen to breathe, you will not be disturbed by thinking that Mr. Schrenk, who used to be a student with us here, has become unsound in his views by going to Harvard. Professor Rowleé: I have been very much interested in the paper by Mr. Schrenk. It will, be remembered by some members of the society that I presented a paper upon this general topic years ago, and at that time I looked up the literature relating to the subject somewhat carefully. I did not then, nor till Mr. Schrenk wrote me, anticipate that these structures would be 38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE found in so many plants. There is a great deal yet, I think, to be learned about the life histories of our marsh plants—it is one of the most interesting fields for study. The position that Mr. Schrenk takes with reference to these organs, these peculiar developments, may be strengthened, I think, by the general statement that these cells show gréat activ- ity. They are cells that are highly charged with protoplasm— not devoid of protoplasm as are some cells of the stem structure. Now if this development were for floating purposes, as has been urged, for the purpose of keeping the stem at the top of the water, there would be certainly no occasion for unusual retention of protoplasm and activity in it. I may add, however, by way of contribution to the subject that, being considerably interested in the matter of this development of tissue, I thought that it might possibly be developed by any plant, that any plant if submerged in a flood might develop it. We frequently have floods in Ithaca, and when we do there is an exellent opportunity to study the effects of submergence upon the lowlands here. I think that it was perhaps two years ago, after the vegetation was well started upon the alluvial bot- tom toward the lake that there came a very heavy rain so that the plants, many of them, were nearly submerged ; I presume the water was nearly eight inches deep. I visited that region repeat- edly with the special object of finding plants adapting themselves to that submergence. The upland plants had started to grow in normal terrestrial conditions, and they were submerged. To my surprise nothing happened such as I had anticipated. In the two weeks that the flood lasted those plants withstood it, appar- ently with some injury, but without in any way adapting them- selves to those aquatic conditions, as I expected they would. It looks then as though certain plants had this method of stand- ing submergence, and other plants had not. It is not possible for many plants to respond. Professor Rogers’ paper on ‘A Practical Method of Referring Units of Length to the Wave Length of Sodium Light,” was then read by Professor Moler. AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 39 Professor Gage: The question may arise to the minds of some of you, What is the good of all this, anyway ? I remember that back in 1882, at our meeting then in Elmira, Professor Rogers was talking about metrology, the same subject that is being discussed in this paper to-day. On that subject I believed most thoroughly that the way to get the length of anything was to buy a two-foot square in town at the hardware store, and measure it. That was the same opinion as Professor Rogers has told me (1 know some of you have heard the story but some have not) was held by a carpenter whom he wanted to level up a table. For this purpose Professor Rogers gave him a good level—that is, what Professor Rogers would call a good level. The carpenter took it and tried to level up the table, but finally he gave it up, declaring that the thing was no good, it was bobbing around all the time. So he went home and gota 50-cent level, and had not the slightest trouble in getting the table level. I think you can see from this paper that if we are to get anything like abso- lute measurements, not merely approximate ones, the best skill of the most skillful men is necessary. We see from the paper the difficulties that Professor Rogers had—after he got his brass box, instead of its holding the air out it went in. All these diffi- culties arise constantly in experiments where we reach for some- thing absolute. Of course where it is simply an approximation, a rough sort of approximation, there is no trouble; then we can use the ordinary carpenter’s level or the two-foot measure that we buy at the store. But Professor Rogers is trying to do some- thing very different ; and he is, as many of us know, not exceeded in the world as a metrologist ; he is recognized the world over, in his determination of exact measurements as a master. It is therefore with the greatest gratification that we have heard sucha paper as that brought before us. To some of us perhaps there is a good deal that is new and strange in this, but this is exactly, as our worthy friend who welcomed us to the city and the univer- sity has suggested, this is just what we are after—getting at things that everybody does not know about, making additions to human knowledge. 40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE Mr. Seaman: I suppose that to many people who have not thought upon the subject, the matter of weights and measures appears extremely simple. They suppose every foot rule is ex- actly like every other foot rule and every pound weight exactly like every other pound weight. Now 1 think thata little thought will show you how very far from a correct statement this would bein the ordinary methods of business. If you go back in the history of weights and measures you find that first of all people used as standards, parts of the human body. We have relics of that yet 5 the hand with which we measure horses is the width of the human hand; the unit of length known as a foot is derived originally from the human foot. If you go back to classic days, the land was measured by the number of hides of oxen that it took to cover it, and we find traces of that in our language at the present day. In England, in the time of Henry III., the grain, which we now know as an apothecary’s measure, was actually a grain of wheat ; and in order to establish some sort of uniformity they attempted to prescribe by law that the grain should be taken from the middle of the head of wheat, so that there might be a uniform size, because the grains at the end and bottom of the head were smaller than the other grains.* Now it resulted from this attempt to furnish measures by natural objects that weights and measures were of allsorts. If you take a foot rule which you say is correct, and somebody else makes a foot rule by it and that one goes on to some other part of the country perhaps and somebody makes a foot rule by it, you will find that the little-accumulated errors will soon amount to an enormous variation from the standard. When the surveyor in the city of New York attempted to compare and verify some of the old surveys there, he found that it was impossible to do so, often within five or six inches of the original lines. In New York, where land is worth $250 a square foot, in many cases six inches amounts to an enormous value. The reason was that the old surveyors had never had any mode of verifying their chains. The way it was actually done is described in one of the old *See Remington’s Pharmacy, Art. Weights and Measures. m P hee reas SS —EEe eee AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 41 mathematical books, where the author prescribes that the surveyor shall go to a church at the time when the congregation is coming out, and call upon the first 16 people coming from the church to stand together heel and toe, and he shall measure the length of the line of feet for two rods; and thereby measured his chain. You can see that under such conditions as that accuracy of weights and measures was almost impossible. You could see in the wall of an old building in the city of New York a few years ago two iron staples or spikes driven in, in order that people might fit their yard-sticks between them to verify their length. Of course in a few years the spikes would become worn off so that the yard-sticks would become longer all the time. I suppose hardly any of you know that in this country to- day there is but one, strictly speaking, legal system of weights and measures, and that that system is not the one in customary use. It is a very curious fact that the system of weights and measures which we derive from England has never been legally authorized by Congress. The only legislation upon the subject of weights and measures which Congress has ever made consists of two primary acts. One allowed the customs officers to use the English weights and measures for the purpose of ascertaining the customs to be paid to the government. The other act, which was passed in 1866, established the metric system as the legal system of weights and measures in this country. So we have the curious anomaly that the great majority of the people in this country are using a system of weights and measures which is, strictly speaking, not according to law. Now in connection with this I will state that when I first came to Washington 20 years ago and began to attend the meetings of scientific societies there, I rarely heard of anything but the English system of weights and measures. To-day you rarely hear anything but the metric system. Measurements of objects of natural history are mostly given in the metric system, so that that system has actually come into use by a large number of people in this country. There is one other thought that I may mention—I am simply suggesting a few leading ideas. I stated that if you make a 42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE measure and then compare another measure with that, and from the second make a third, etc., there is very soon introduced a great variation between the measures last made and the original one. There are but two standards of measure in the civilized world. The one is the metre of the archives in Paris; the other is the platinum yard made by order of Parliament in England, after the burning of the Houses of Parliament. If we take every meas- ure in the world and refer them to those two standards, they will all be alike ; and that is how this possibity of accumulating errors is avoided. It is in order to make accurate comparisons with these standards that all this work of Professor Rogers has been done ; and it has been done with a perfection that, as Professor Gage has stated, has been equalled nowhere else in the world. Prof. Hyatt then read his paper on “The Mouth Parts and Ovipositor of Cicada septendecim.” Mr. Seaman: One of the privileges of science is to dispel fictitious fears among people—the dread of that which is really harmless. In connection with Professor Hyatt’s statement re- specting the non-poisonous character of the Cicada septendecim, I am reminded of a very extended series of experiments carried out by Dr. Marx, a member of the Biological Society at Wash- ington, in relation to the poisonous character of spiders, which are usually supposed to be dangerous creatures. He took a num- ber of the spiders of the kinds which have been reported in the newspapers as having killed people, or having caused serious illness, or at least having produced disagreeable swellings ; and he’ commenced by causing them to bite mice, and from mice he went to guinea pigs, and from guinea pigs he went to rabbits, and from rabbits to himself and other people. He tried many hundreds of experiments ; he traced up, moreover, the histories of many of the newspaper statements, and he proved, beyond the shadow of doubt, that there is no spider belonging to this country, and perhaps in no part of the world—because he tried many of the large bird spiders of Brazil and other southern and tropical speci- mens—that there is no spider in the United States whose bite may be considered in any respect dangerous to life, or even AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 43 capable of producing in the majority of cases more than the swelling which arises from a common mosquito bite. There have been some cases—I think only two or three that he was able to run down—where illness, perhaps in one case death, was supposed to be connected with the bite of a spider; but a care- ful examination of the evidence shows that it was not, strictly speaking, due to the bite of the spider at all, but to that kind of inflammation and blood poisoning which might result from the scratch of a pin. Not but what spiders do have some poison, but it is so feeble and in such small quantity that it is absolutely without danger to human life. Dr. Kingsbury read his paper on “‘ The Lateral Line System of Sense Organs in Amphibia.” é Professor Gage: I suppose we have all wondered in our youth when we caught fish what that streak was along the side of the body ; and it has been the purpose of Dr. Kingsbury in giving us this paper not merely to speak of that in fishes but in the Amphibia. Ithaca,as you know, is peculiarly rich in Amphi- bia. There is a large variety of forms by which to test the theory, whether it is due simply to the water or to something else that we have that very interesting series, which Dr. Kings- bury has shown to us. He has been trying to get behind the appearances and find the reality, the true significance of things which on the face of them may not seem to have much significance—exactly the kind of work for which the society stands, it seems to me. A paper on ‘“‘A Comparison of methods of determining Hemo- globin,” by F. C. Busch and A. T. Kerr, Jr., was then read. Professor Gage: I may begin the questioning by asking the reader if he will tell us how these tests correspond, for instance, to determining the number of blood corpuscles in the blood of the patient. Suppose we have a normal number of blood corpuscles—let us suppose 5,000,000 as the normal number. If now in your tests you found the hemoglobin was too much or too little, would there be a corresponding increase or decrease of the blood corpuscles ? Mr. Busch: It has been found by observations made by @ 44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE number of observers that the hemoglobin does not necessarily correspond to the number of corpuscles. It has been found, for instance, as regards specific gravity that it has some constant relation to the hamoglobin, but does not depend at all upon the number of blood corpuscles. Professor Gage: With a smaller number of blood corpuscles then you might have more hemoglobin ? Mr. Busch: Yes, you might have more hemoglobin. Professor Gage: I believe there is at least an exceedingly marked relationship between the haemoglobin and the number of blood corpuscles if the variation is exceedingly large. If the change in the number of blood corpuscles were smaller, say three or four hundred thousand, it might not be a very important factor. Dr. Moore, you have had expericnce in determining the amount of hemoglobin and of blood copuscles ; can you say a few words to us on the subject ? Dr. Moore: I think not. The work I have had experience in was not concerned with hemoglobin. But the question I was just thinking about was this: In cases of anaemia, where you have a large loss of haemoglobin, and in the organs such as the spleen, the liver and the kidneys a deposition of blood pigment, it seems to me that there must be a decided variation in the specific gravity of the blood, if, as is supposed, the specific gravity depends largely upon the amount of hemoglobin. Now whether this hamoglobin is free in the plasma or still confined in the cor- puscles is a question I am not prepared to speak about specif- ically; but on general principles it seems that where blood cor- puscles are destroyed in cases of anemia, as I think has been found in certain of the lower animals—that in these cases the hamoglobin is deposited and the specific gravity must vary. I think there must be a correspondence in the lower specific gravity of the blood and the diminution of the red corpuscles. What effect an increase of the white corpuscles would have on this re- lation of hamoglobin I cannot say. But in those cases we have to deal with the fact that there is an unusual, an enormous in- crease in the leucocytes of various forms. Professor Gage: We have here one who has made a great , AMERICAN MIVROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 45 study of the blood by aid of the micro-spectroscope. I would like to ask, Dr. White, if in your spectroscopic study you can make any correlation between experiments like those on the number of blood corpuscles and the indications that would be given by the spectroscope. Dr. White: Ido not think I can answer the question satis- factorily. I have noticed, however, that in examining specimens of blood some specimens have very little hemoglobin, while others have a great deal. In some cases there is a very great difference in the corpuscles. Just in that connection I would like to say one word in the way of asking a question, which I shall not pretend to answer myself. I have noticed in examining the blood of the dead in post-mortem examinations, that there are bodies, sometimes as small as red corpuscles, sometimes twice as large, that are colored almost as much as the red corpuscles. I have even seen these in regard to the living as well as in regard to the dead, and I am free to say I do not know what those bodies are. Mr. Moody: It seems to me that while there is a definite re- lation or a somewhat definite relation, between the hemoglobin and specific gravity, there are other things which enter into the specific gravity of the blood, that may cause as great errors as those arising in the experiments. Dr. Moore: There is another question I would like to ask in connection with the specific gravity of the blood—the time of day of the experiments, and in what relation the taking of the blood stood to the taking of food by the patient? I should think if observations were made at different periods of the day in the same individual, there might be changes due to the different relation to the time of taking nourishment. Mr. Busch: Our observations as a rule were made about mid- way between meals. At that time the blood is more likely to be in a normal condition. Some researches have been made by Mr. Jones, of Cambridge, showing that the specific gravity varied during the day under different conditions, as for instance, according to the amount of liquid taken in. I know that one German ob- 46 PROCEEDINGS OF THE server says that upon taking one and one-half mugs of beer the specific gravity was diminished considerably. Professor Gage: Have your investigations gone far enough to find out whether this is really a practically useful clinical method? I suppose that is a question we want to face and answer. 1 Mr. Busch: I will not say absolutely just at this time, because our observations are not completed yet; but there is no doubt that this specific gravity method also is liable to considerable error. We think that the other methods are liable to as much and perhaps more error. But there is an advantage in having a method which: is not a color test. People’s eyes vary so considerably. The idea is this—that if we can get a method in which the error is constant, then from day to day we can use it upon the same patient and observe his improvement. Dr. Moore closing the discussion: I would like to say just a word or two in connection with this change in the blood after food. In my experience when we have taken the blood of dogs after death, if they were killed soon after they had been fed with milk or with a light sort of mush, we found as a result that the serum would contain such an enormous number of leucocytes, that when the serum was set the surface would be completely covered with a substance almost resembling cream in appearance— in structure if not in color, for it is white—a substance that really makes it useless for work. It seems to me that in taking blood in such large quantities as that you would have great variations. I should think that in determining the practical value of these investigations, they would have to be taken in connection with observation of the condition of the corpuscles, both red and white. ; Professor C. H. Eigenmann them made a few remarks prelimi- nary to his paper on “ The history of the sex-cells from the time of segregation to sexual differentiation in Cymtogaster,” and at the conclusion of the paper the society adjourned. Wednesday afternoon, August 21, about two o'clock, the society assembled in the Physical Laboratory, at Franklin Hall, AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 47 and examined the ruling engine and comparator made by Wm. A. Rogers. From the laboratory we went to the Entomological department and inspected the excellent arrangement of insects made by Professor Comstock, and also the beautiful engravings made by Mrs. Comstock. Then the library was visited and those who wished ascended the tower to enjoy the view of the lake and country, while others examined the rare old books Professor Mr. Burr exhibited in the White Historical Library. The beginning of Cornell University was the Morrill land grant of Congress to each State in 1862. After various struggles in the State legislature over the disposition of the grant to New York, during which Andrew D. White, of Syracuse, and Ezra Cornell, of Ithaca, became closely associated, on October 7, 1868, the university was formally opened. The distinguishing features of Cornell as a University are that it puts all truth on a level, and gives to the scientific or technical student the same standing as the student of literature and the classics. Hence the spirit of the whole institution is preéminently American and scien- tific as distinguished from those institutions where the dominating influences have been those of tradition and caste. Hence the young man who goes te Cornell receives a training that fits him for the real life of the present age in which he is to play a part. This year the university expects to welcome to her halls 2,000 students, including the women who find here precisely the same opportunities as the men, and how well they make use of them the pages of these proceedings bear witness. The library, while it is one of the most recent, is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and interesting buildings on the grounds. Many of the members wandered off to the other buildings near by, in- cluding Sage college, the dormitory for women, adjoining which is the Botanical department, and also to the Young Men’s Christian Association building and the chapel, both near by. Attached to the latter is a memorial chapel in which lie the bodies of Ezra Cornell and Mrs. Andrew D. White, whose forms sculptured in marble, rest on their marble couches as if they, too, were an imperishable part of the institution which is for one of 48 PROCEEDINGS OF THE them one of the proudest monuments ever reared for any man. In connection with this visit to the collections of the University the following letter from Dr. Wilder is appropriate for insertion here: THE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF VERTEBRATES. To Dr. W. H. Seaman, Secretary of the American Microscopical Society : Dear Sir— I regret my absence from Ithaca during the coming session of the society upon both personal and official grounds. It would give me pleasure to attend the sessions and meet the members. As Curator of the Vertebrate Division of the Natural History collection of Cornell University, I should invite inspection of it. In so doing I should endeavor to state four points as follows: 1. The objects of the vertebrate museum. 2. The principles upon which it has been formed and main- tained. 38. Its special merits. 4. Its chief deficiencies. 1. The Museum is primarily and mainly educational. That is, it is intended to illustrate the instruction of the classes in Physiology, Verte- brate Zoology, Neurology, and Embryology. At each lecture or practicum from 10 to 50 specimens are brought into the class room, and not only exhibited and explained, but left there for one or more days for fuller examination. In accordance, however, with the doctrine that ‘‘none are so well fitted to impart knowledge as those who are engaged in reviewing its methods and extending its boundaries,” the collections have been made the basis of numerous researches and publications by the staff of the anatomical depart- ment, and by specialists elsewhere to whom specimens have been loaned. There are also in rooms not open to the public considerable stores of mate- rial for investigation or for preparation as museum specimens. On the other hand the wants of the public have not been ignored. The only division of the collection at present labeled with approximate explicit- ness comprises the animals of Tompkin county, whose names, life-histories and habits are of special interest to the farmers and fishermen of this vicinity. From the beginning the museum has been freely accessible during the whole of all week-days. The janitor is often at work there or within call, and when funds have been available for the purpose a student-guide has been in attendance on Saturdays and at commencement. The museum is visited by schools from out of town and by excursion parties numbering hundreds at a time. So far as lam aware no officer or employe has ever received from visitors any pecuniary recompense for attendance upon them, for the explanation of specimens or for the exhibition of living animals. 2. The fundamental principle of the museum is the illustration of important facts and ideas by means of specimens carefully selected and well prepared. The wall-cases at the north end of the main floor contain a synopsis of the vertebrate branch, and of the larger divisions commonly regarded as classes. As an example may be taken the two cases at the east AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 49 end of the series. Here are about 15 mammals fairly representing the range of difference in respect to form and mode of locomotion. Also some dissections displaying the structural features which are both constant throughout the class and peculiar thereto, e. g., the complete diaphragm, the left aortic arch, etc. In a case at the west side of the same floor may be seen a series of a very different kind, viz., of the venomous vertebrates so for as obtainable. Otherseries begun or contemplated are enumerated in my address on ‘‘Edu- cational Museums of Vertebrates” in the American Association Proceedings for 1885: Abstract in Science, Vol. VI., 1885, pp, 222-24. The most significant of these relate to the exposition of the general doctrine of evolution. In the formation of these series mere number has not been considered, nor has the cost or the rarity of a specimen determined its real value. So far from taking all that is offered merely because it is cheap or alto- gether without cost, I have held that a wise economy would be practiced by paying for what was really needed, rather than in accepting less desir- able objects as gifts. In an educational museum of vertebrates one flying squirrel is more desirable than a dozen other kinds. It would be wiser to pay ten dollars each for a Sphenodon, a Protopterus and an Apteryx than to receive as gifts a hundred other lizards, fishes or birds. Indeed, con- trary to the prevailing idea that the curator of a museum is mainly a collector, I hold that one of his chief duties is to keep things out of it. 3. Among the desirable features of the museum may be enumerated the following: a. The large number of embryos, brains and hearts of all classes. b. The numerous well-preserved human cerebrums especially of edu- cated persons. c. Thedissected preparations illustrating zoologic or physiologic facts and ideas. Some of the best of these were made by your distinguished Presi- dent. d. The association of such dissections of soft parts in the same case with the skins and skeletons of the same or allied forms. ‘e. The preservation of so many parts of one and the same individual. For example, of a kangaroo there are the stuffed skin, the mounted skeleton, the alinjected heart and brain, and some other viscera. This not only exhibits correlations of structure but also in case of the detection of ane error in the identification of the skin, renders it possible to extend the rectification to all the other parts. f. The designation of all parts of a single individual by one and the same number, and the use of the same number upon all notes, photographs and drawings relating thereto. 4. The most obvious defect of the collection is suggested by the last paragraph; few of the specimens bear labels conveying adequate informa- tion tv the visitor. But it must be remembered that the collection is primarily for use in instruction and that although the tags may not be read easily from without the case, they can be when the specimens are in the 50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE lecture room. Also, the number refers to an Accession Book and to notes that are accessible. Finally, among the reasons for the delay in labeling is the intention to supplement the conventional label by a somewhat full description and, in the case of anatomical preparations, by photographs, or diagrams or published figures. The attainment of this “triple alliance of object, drawing and description” requires much time and deliberation. That many and serious gaps in the various seriesremain to be filled hardly needs admission. For these desiderata we must await opportunities, the thoughtfulness of our friends and the power of the trustees to supply the means of purchase and preparation. . The defects in the arrangement of the collection are due to three condi- tions: a. The present necessity of accommodating upon the main floor certain ethnologic and archzologic collections which are incongruous and interrupt the natural series. b. The limitations of space in the alcove cases and in those at the north end of theroom. The malposition most to be deprecated is the association of the Dipnoans with the Ganoids, which constitutes in my mind, rank zoologic heresy. ‘At present it is hardly to be avoided. ; ec. A recent interchange of cases with another department necessitated the transfer and storage of a considerable portion of the vertebrate series, and the rearrangement has not yet been effected. Hence some unoccupied spaces and some masses of undisplayed specimens. Should the American Microscopical Society again honor Ithaca by meeting there I trust the verte- brate division of the zoological collections may better represent my views and intentions regarding it. Very respectfully yours, BURT G. WILDER. Siasconset, Nantucket Island, Aug. 17, 95. Wednesday evening, about eight o’clock the society gathered in the Botanical lecture room to listen to the annual address of the President, Professor Simon H. Gage, on The Processes of Life Revealed by the Microscope; a Plea for Physiological Histology. The address begins this Volume. Norg.—Those who wish to know more of Ithaca and Cornell University, in addition to the catalogs of the institution, which can be had.on applica- tion, will find a little pamphlet of Andrus and Church, ‘‘ In and Out of Ithaca,” very useful. AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 51 TuHurspay MorninG, August 22. At 9.40 the society assembled, about 70 persons being present. Professor Rowlee read his paper on ‘ The Chlorophyll Bodies of Chara Coronata.”’ aa The President then appointed Dr. Kellicott and Mr. Kihne as a committee to audit the accounts of the Treasurer. The following names were elected after free nominations to serve as a nominating committee to select officers for the ensu- ing year : Messrs. W. W. Rowlee, D. S. Kellicott, W. H. Walmsley, G. S. Hopkins and Wm. C. Krauss. Miss M. A. Nichols then read her paper on “‘ Secondary Thick- enings of the Root Stalks of Spathyema.”’ Professor Rowlee said when the paper was ended: It is due in justice to Miss Nichols to say that she began what she and I both believed to be a comparatively simple problem, and intended to keep it within very definite limits, and it was her intention when she undertook it to present it to this society. The discoveries that she made as soon as she began to investigate, however, led into such different lines that the paper has in it the possibility of a very important contribution to our knowledge of the monocotyledon- ous group. It is known probably to every one that the flowering plants are divided into two great groups, the monocotyledons and the dicotyledons, or, as they have been called, the exogens and the endogens. The endogens or monocotyledons were believed once not to have any secondary thickening, or, as the term implies, increase by internal growth. As Miss Nichols has said, DeBary found exceptions—others had found exceptions before him, and he summarized the exceptions ; but they are comparatively few. There are always exceptions in natural history, you know, and it is fortunate if the exceptions do not come to be the rule. Neither of us had a notion that we should find secondary thicken- ing when the work was begun. It was with a view to the seed, which Miss Nichols has described to us, that the study was made. Not only is the discovery of the secondary thickening new, but likewise the method of thickening is new; so that I feel we have 52 PROCEEDINGS OF THE here a contribution to our knowledge of plants that is very im- portant and which will be altogether creditable to our proceedings. Dr. Hopkins: I would like to ask Miss Nichols if she has tried any experiment to see whether or not the crystals would be re- formed after being dissolved out. If they would be, I should think it could be determined whether or not the irritation to the taste was caused by the crystals. — Miss Nichols: I did experiment with that in view, but the crystals would not re-form voluntarily, for I let the solutions stand for some time and examined them, but they did not re-form. Whether they could be made to do so or not I do not know. Dr. Holbrooks’ paper ona “‘ Fourth Study of the Blood, show- ing the Relation of the Colorless Corpuscle to the Strength of the by Constitution,’ was read by title only, and the society then listened _ to Mr. K. M. Wiegand on “ Two Cases of Intercellular Spaces in Vegetable Embryos.” The paper was discussed as follows : Dr. Seaman: I would like to ask Mr. Wiegand as to the shape of the limiting cells on these canals, as regards their length. Are they longer than other cells, or not? Mr. Wiegand: No sir, their length is about the same as their diameter. Dr. Seaman: They are mere altered parenchyma cells? Mr. Wiegand: Yes, altered a little in form. J might say that the arrangement of these spaces and of the cells around them remind one very much of the arrangement of cells around resin ducts in mature plants. The resin ducts in the pine family of course have a sheath of cells arranged in this way. The paper of Dr. E. J. Durand, on the “ Fruits of the Order of Umbelliferae”” was then read by title, also that of Dr. P. A. Fish, “‘ The Action of Strong Currents of Electricity upon Nerv- ous Tissue.”’ The society then listened to Mrs. Gage’s paper on “ The Morphology of the Brain of the Soft-shelled Turtle and the English Sparrow compared.”’ Discussion on Mrs. Gage’s paper. Dr. Krauss: I would like to ask if Mrs. Gage has made a AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 53 study of the cells of the cortex, especially of the frontal lobe, or that part of the brain of the turtle corresponding to the frontal — lobe in man; and also what the development of those cells is, as compared with the development of the cells in the parietal lobe or the occipital lobe. Mrs. Gage: To answer Dr. Krauss’s question, I can simply say that thus far in my investigation I have confined my work to the general features of the brain, not atall to the histology ; I do not know that I shall ever get to that point, there are so many problems in the way which must be met in order to homologize the parts and to be sure that the origin of the parts is the same, before a comparison can be made of the cells. Professor Ward: I should like to ask, in the light of this inves- tigation of the three series of brains, to what extent Mrs. Gage thinks the homology by fiber tracts can be followed out—are they characteristic of certain groups and homologous in the groups? Mrs. Gage: Thus far only a few of these fiber tracts have been considered. If I could find the cell nidz and the origin of them, and find that they are perfectly comparable, then I should feel that the fiber tracts which connect those nide are homolo- gous. Otherwise I should feel that, simply because they go in the same general direction and follow the same general course, it is not necessary that they are homologous. Professor Ward: Another word. To what extent have you followed this out and found homology ? Mrs. Gage: There are comparatively few of these which I have already done. The one which I have mentioned in connec- tion with this investigation in these two forms, seems to be exactly comparable. There are certain tracts, like the great anterior and posterior bundles, about which there seems to be no doubt at all. There are these to be traced in all the forms of vertebrates and they seem to perform in general the same function and take the some direction; but some of these others, I should say, are much more difficult to trace. There are several others which are apparently, so far, quite easily determined. Some of the 54 PROCEEDINGS OF THE more difficult ones, as those in the base of the cerebrum, I should say, would take a great deal of time to decide finally that they were homologous throughout the vertebrate series. 1 Dr. Humphrey: I was struck with regard to what Mrs. Gage says concerning the size of the optic nerves of these turtles, and I can state that these animals have a very acute sight. When lying upon the stones or logs along the course of our rivers, they will slide off when a person is sometimes at a distance of three or four hundred yards. But on the other hand I do not consider that their sense of hearing is very acute. A few weeks ago I was walking along the banks of one of our smaller rivers with a rifle. There were two turtles sitting on a log some sixty yards away. As I was behind some bushes they did not see me. I assisted one of them off the log with the rifle, but the other did not notice it at all, so I assisted him off in the same way. Often I have noticed that they pay very little attention to the crack of a gun, but they pay a great deal of attention to one’s motion, and I believe sometimes that they notice the puff of smoke from a gun. Mrs. Gage: How about the sense of smell or the sense of touch ? Dr. Humphrey: I do not know about that, I presume though, that it is very acute. I should infer that the sense of smell was acute from the fact that they live mostly on dead fish. I may say in regard to the habits of these, and of the large snapping turtles, those whose heads are perhaps three inches across, very large ones, I have found that their stomachs were filled with fresh-water algze ; while, as far as I have been able to discover, the soft-shelled turtles never take anything but flesh. If Mrs. Gage will permit me I will say that I think a walk along a stream would cause her to change one expression. She said this animal led a sort of dreamy existence. It does in the winter time, but in the summer time I can see no analogy to a dreamy existence, unless because he is a nightmare to the fish- erman. Mrs. Gage: With reference to two points of which Mr. Hum- phrey spoke: In observing a shoft-shelled turtle it is very evident | AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 5 Un that he keeps a very watchful eye upon you, but the only indica- tion of motion whatever that he makes will be in the turning of the eyeball. You know he is looking at you from that one fact. There is no indication of nervousness on his part in any other way. As to the sense of hearing I have observed in a jar, where I have studied them, that any loud sound near the jar will not pro- duce any motion whatever in the turtle; wnile on shaking the jar even in the slightest degree they will move. I conclude from this that the sense of feeling was much more observable in this turtle than the sense of hearing. Professor Eigenmann: I may adda word as to the habits of these turtles. We have had quite a number in the laboratory this summer. They have a habit of burrowing under the sand just sufficiently to cover themselves so that they cannot be seen. One which we were trying to photograph, when we went to get the plate, I think only across the table, was nicely covered when we got back so that we could hardly see it. One very large one that we got in a pen was missed after a few days. I thought he was literally in the soup: But he afterwards reappeared. These turtles lay their eggs in the sand. They lay quite a large number of eggs in a nest—the largest number that we secured this summer was thirty-two. The eggs are quite large—like good-sized marbles. They are white, but the upper surface of the egg is much whiter than the lower surface. I secured quite a number of their little ones, but have not so far been able to get any eggs to hatch. We still have a batch of eggs, however, and hope to rear some. Mrs. Gage: Where do they lay their eggs; how near the water ? Professor Eigenmann: They lay the eggs within a few fect of the water’s edge. Those we secured were within, I should say, ten feet of the edge of the water, right in the sand of one of the lakes. The easiest way to get them is to take a hoe and go toa likely place and just hoe over the whole of the region. You may strike a nest and then by a little more careful hoeing you can 56 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ro get the eggs. We tried our fingers for quite a while, but found it was wearing our nails and otherwise not very agreeable. A hoe is the best thing There is no sign on the surface. You can find marks where the turtles have walked up, but on a beach a mile long the turtles had walked up all along it so that the tracks do not help you much. But once in a while you can find a particular track lead- ing straight to a spot where there is a little depression in the sand, a spade is not very good. and there you can be pretty sure will bea nest. I may add that right beside the nest of thirty-two we found another with seventeen eggs. At any place where there was a point of land, by using a hoe we could secure from 150 to 200 of the eggs in a short time, perhaps hardly fifteen minutes. Mrs. Gage: It seemed to me these turtles had the most self- restraint of any animal I have ever watched. I sat by a tank watching one for ten hours one day. I think Mr. Humphrey would have been convinced that my conclusion about their dreamy existence was correct. That turtle stayed at the bottom of the tank for ten hours, and never once moved in that time. He had filled up his lungs with oxygen and was breathing down there by means of his gills situated in the throat. Dr. V. A. Moore then read his paper on ‘‘ The Flagella of Motile Bacteria.’ | 3 The President said: It is one of the sources of congratulation for societies like this that we have problems presented to us for investigation, and that as naturalists or investigators in science, we have never to weep as Alexander did for new worlds to conquer. May I ask Dr. Moore if it is the supposition that these flagella move, or have they been actually seen to move. Dr. Moore: Some of the earlier observers have published the statement that they have seen these flagella in the larger forms, move in stagnant water. I will say that in examining a water bacillus not long ago in a liquid culture, in the hanging- drop preparation, as it is technically called, I saw these flagella, a mass of them, rolling and twisting about, perhaps by means of AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 57 currents in the liquid; but I could not see them attached to the bacilli themselves. But they have been observed and described.’ Dallinger and Drysdale watched a bacillus, as they called it at that time, whatever it was I do not know, one of those organisms—for ten or twelve hours, first one and then the other, until finally they saw a curious vertical appearence of the liquid at the poles of the organism ; they said they saw this fine hair-like projection move. _ Those statements have been made, and I do not doubt that with proper optical appliances they could be seen in the larger forms. Dr. White: I should like to make a statement in regard to some of these bacteria that I think has not yet been published. It may be of some interest on just this question of the motility. Dr. Foote, of Yale, has prepared some cultures, both in plate cultures and stab cultures in test tubes, and he asked me to photograph them. Now these stab cultures in the test tubes in glycerine after three days’ culture, the Cold communis appears as a line or thread generally where the track of the wire was inserted ; while a simple culture of the typhoid bacillus shows the culture generally following the track of the needle, but also spread out laterally so that it is funnel-shaped. At the top of the test tube it will be very wide, perhaps half-an-inch wide, and tapering down to the bottom. To my mind this different appearance is one kind of proof that these bacilli move and travel in the gelatin. Also in the plate cultures of the Coli communis, which is generally considered to have very few flagella compared with the typhoid bacillus—the colonies after three days’ culture in this same material are clearly defined at the edges, sharply defined as little dots; while the similiar cultures of the typhoid bacillus have a distinct areola around them, about as wide as the colony itself. If I had known that this paper was coming on this morning I would have brought photographs to illustrate this point. Dr. Krauss: Just to show the importance of the flagella in making a comparative examination of the bacilliabout a year and a half ago we had an outbreak of typhoid fever in Buffalo. In 58 PROCEEDINGS OF THE trying to detect the source we examined the water of different localities. We suspected that the water commissioners were using a source of water that had previously been used in Buffalo, but not for the past few years. Now as to this old source of water supply we know that certain parts of the city drain into it. It was during a north-east storm when the water supply was rather low that they used this old water supply. After a certain period of incubation the typhoid fever broke out in all parts of the city. , We examined the bacilli in the old water supply and found almost as much bacilli as water. In making comparative tests we found that the typhoid bacillus was present and also other bacilli resembling the typhoid so closely that it was almost impossible to tell which was the typhoid and which was the other. It was only ‘on staining for flagella that we were able to state positively that the typhoid was present and undoubtedly caused all the trouble. Now as far as the function of the flagella is concerned, it occurs to me, why cannot these flagella be weapons of defense for the bacilli in their warfare against the phagocytes. We know that almost all living bodies are supplied with weapons of defense of some kind or other, and these may possibly be the creatures’ way of fighting off the phagocytes as long as possible. The power of resistance to disease in different persons is very different, as we know, and certainly the resistance to antiseptic action of some of these forms may be due perhaps to the flagella. Professor H. B. Ward then read two papers, one on the ‘Primitive Source of Food Supply in the Great Lakes,” the other on ‘ Some Experiments in Methods of Plankton Measurements. Discussion on Professor Ward’s papers. Professor Rowlee: I would like to ask Dr. Ward two ques- tions. He mentioned three conditions which determined the pres- ence of organisms more abundantly in the upper six feet of the water than elsewhere. Those three conditions do not include one that it occured to me might very considerably affect their presence there, and that is the amount of air or oxygen that is in solution in the water. Is it not true that there is much more of that generally near the surface than in the deeper water ? AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 59 Professor Ward: That matter has never, so far as I know, been investigated in fresh water. In salt water, Agassiz says in “The Cruise of the Blake” that experiments made at a depth of some one hundred fathoms show nearly the same amount of oxygen as near the surface. Dr. Eigenmann: I think that it has been shown that there is more oxygen further down than on the surface. Professor Rowlee: The other question was in regard to shoals of fish visiting the mouths of rivers and streams. In Lake Ontario the best fishing grounds are near the mouths of rivers ; and when- ever there were great quantities of white fish taken by nets they were usually, I do not know but universally, drawn where streams flowed into the lake. Professor Eigenmann: Was that in the fall of the year ? Professor Rowlee: I think they drew them all summer, at all times of the season. It occurred to me that that might be ex- plained by some unevenness in the supply of food. Professor Ward: I do not know how that is on Lake Ontario. The best fishing grounds in ‘the northern lakes are not in such situations. The best white-fish ground in the vicinity of Charle- voix is on the west side of Beaver Island, which is a straight sandy beach, so far as I remember, entirely without a break of the smallest size. There is this much to be said with reference to the white fish. There was evidence, I think, discovered last summer to lead me to say that I believe the true white fish is a bottom feeder, and in that respect differs from all the other species of white fish in the lakes. Dr. Fell: I wish to make a remark on some observations I made in Lake Erie last summer. I noticed great quantities of small fish cast up on the shore from Crystal Beach west and also from there east, and I presume along the whole shore of Lake Erie. There were millions of fish two or three inches long thrown up on the sand and destroyed. Whether these were products of the fish culturists or not I cannot say, but it seemed to indicate that there was some great mistake made in supplying the lakes with fish spawn, if such was the case. 60 PROCEEDINGS OF THE But I have not seen any reference to this great destruction of small fish before. I have not noticed it this year, but last year the dead fish were plentiful, so that to walk along the shore of the lake was very unpleasant indeed. You could not step with- out putting your foot on two or three of them. As to the question of food supply I recollect some years ago we made an estimate of the character and quantity of diatoms passing Niagara River; and we ascertained that some tons of diatoms passed down there every day. Undoubtedly diatoms are a great original source of food supply for the lakes. Professor Eigenmann: Professor Ward’s paper was among those which I especially was anxious to hear. The importance of such stations has long suggested itself to me. I believe that sometimes there is contemporaneous evolution in different regions, and I think that something of that kind has occurred out our way in regard to this matter of studying the conditions of fish life. Illinois has established a station, Michigan has established a station, Indiana has established one this year, and Ohio is. going to establish one next year, to observe just such things as Professor Ward has been telling us about. I have made some observation on the plankton this summer, but that was only as one of the elements of the environment of the fish. We have attacked the fish problem in a little different way. We have established a station on the continental divide between the St. Lawrence and Mississippi basins, at a place where within five or six miles we can get lakes of practically the same dimensions, one belonging to one system and the other to the other system. More than that, within a short distance we get lakes belonging to Lake Erie, and other lakes belonging to Lake Michigan. We are attempting there to study the environment of the fish and the variation of the fish—the environment simply to give us the unit for studying variation. We are catching as many fishes as we think will suffice to get at the entire variation of a given species in the water of these lakes—so many that if we caught all the rest of them it would not make any difference in our measurements. For instance, we have of one little fish, caught in AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 61 one of the lakes, something like 700 specimens now, in which we will measure the variation. We have caught about as many ~ in a neighboring lake to measure the variation there. We are measuring the environment and the variation in one place to get a unit in order to measure the influence of change of environment upon the same fishes in these different lakes to be found around our present station. To return to the turtle question for just a moment. Most of these lakes have been raised in quite recent years by the building of dams, and that has flooded some of the lowlands that were covered with trees; the trees were afterward chopped down so that we have along some of the margins many stumps. These stumps have rotted so that there is a depression in the center. These have been seized upon by the turtles as breeding places. The little turtles crawl up these stumps and lay their eggs inthem. We have got as many as 362 turtle eggs, I believe, out of one of these little places. Rotten logs are frequently full! of these eggs. There are places where in a cow track going across a wheat field every depression that the cow made in walking while the ground was soft contains turtles’ eggs. Professor Kellicott: One or two questions have been raised which I wish barely to mention. In regard to the distribution of the plankton, I may say something in regard to the time which it takes for a floating object to move from Lake Huron, say, to the foot of Lake Erie. Those who have worked at Buffalo are acquainted, I think, with the fact, that pine pollen is found float- ing in the water past the city from the first of January to the first of ~ March. Early in the summer while the pine pollen is being thrown into the lake there is none at all. After the date I have mentioned there is practically none atall. Of course a storm will sometimes stir it up from the bottom so that we find it in small quantities throughout the year. But during the time from Jan- uary to March a great deal of pine pollen comes through the water to Buffalo. This would seem to show that the forces of distribution are ample, even if these minute forms do move so slowly of themselves. 62 PROCEEDINGS OF THE In regard to the diatom Stephanodiscus Niagare it occurred also in the winter, beginning earlier than I have mentioned, and late in the fall, in great quantities, and living and continuing for two or three months, when they ceased. Just where that diatom occurs most luxuriantly Iam notaware. It has never been found, I think, in shallow lakes, except Hemlock Lake. That fact would also have, I think, some bearing.on this question. It must be, I think, an inhabitant of deep water. Mr. Ward speaks of crustacea being the food of a certain fish. Perhaps he is aware that mysis sometimes makes its — way into the water supply at Buffalo. We have taken it there, always when the ice is going out in the spring. In regard to the weighing of the plankton, we estimate the quantity by weight. I suppose we were rather crude because we did not dry the material absolutely. We dried it until the water was just gone, and tried to estimate the exact amount of moisture in that way. That method, when we weighed a large quantity, could cause, I think, only a slight variation. It gave only.a re- lative result, but I think that relative result was pretty good. The method by ash I have some doubts about, because float- ing in the waters of the lakes there is always a large quantity of inorganic matter. If this matter were constant it could be disre- garded, but it is very inconstant. . Professor Ward: I think Professor Kellicott has a little mis- understood my statement. We used the ash precisely for that — reason, to get rid of that inorganic element. There is always, as we found by microscopic examination, some sand floating in the water. We can find individual grains of sand which in weighing make considerable differences. This is especially important when only a small amount of material is taken inahaul. For instance in one haul we have taken only .95 c. c. of material. In estimat- ing that, a small quantity of sand makes a great difference in the weight. But by taking the weight air dried and taking the weight of the ash and subtracting it, we eliminate the inorganic substance in the water, eliminate everything except what is organic. AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 63 Tuurspay AFTERNOON, On Thursday afternoon the society with their friends were ° given an excursion from the Campus to the Lake by the street car.company and upon the Lake by the citizens of Ithaca. This excursion was most enjoyable in every respect. The day was perfect, and through the kindness of Professor Tarr and Professor S. G. Williams, of the university, the interesting geological features of the lake basin were pointed out to the members. Fripay MornineG, August 23. The society assembled at 10 o’clock in the McGraw building, about 90 persons being present. The nominating committee made its report as follows : Officers of the society for 1895-06: For President, Dr. A. Clifford Mercer, of Syracuse, N. Y. For Vice-Presidents, Edward Pennock, of Philadelphia, Pa.; Miss V. A. Latham, of Chicago, II. For Secretary, Dr. William C. Krauss, of Buffalo, N. Y. For Treasurer, Magnus Pflaum, of Pittsburg, Pa. ‘ For members of the Executive Committee, Professor C. H. Eigenmann, of Bloomington, Ind.; Herman Schrenk, of St. Louis, Mo., and Miss M. A. Booth, of Longmeadow, Mass. Upon motion, the secretary was directed to cast a ballot for the nominees as reported by the committee, and they were duly elected. Professor Conser then read his papers on “‘ Cocaine in ‘the Study of Pond Life,’ and on “ Paraffin and Collodion Imbed- ding.” Discussion : _ Professor Eigenmann: I might add a word or two as to the use of cocain€é. I have found it very useful in studying the habits of fishes. In one case especially that I remember, where I secured only one little larva with a net in sea-fishing, it was very valuable and I wanted to make as many sketches as possible at successive stages ; but it would not hold still, and of course J did not want to kill it. So by judiciously adding a little of the cocaine, that the druggist would let me have, I succeeded in keeping it still 64 PROCEEDINGS OF THE quite long enough to draw; then by rapidly changing the sea- water I succeeded in having it live another day. By repeat- ing the operation in that way I got four or five sketches of it. It thus proved very successful. Dr. Mercer: Iam not very familiar with these methods as I am not in the habit of doing much practical work now, but I saw a “wrinkle” a year ago which I suppose some worker might be glad to hear of. It was in Mr. Andrew Pringle’s laboratory on the other side of the water. He was using the paraffin method almost exclusively. He placed his specimen, when he wished to saturate it with paraffin, in a chamber which he could exhaust. The temperature of the chamber was regulated by a thermostat. In a very short time, in comparison with the usual methods, the paraffin had saturated the specimen, by reducing the atmos- pheric pressure around the material. As a means of saving time I dare say the busy worker will appreciate it. Professor Conser: I have used the method of placing the object under an air pump, which has reduced the time consider- ably. It is a very practical method, though it is somewhat com- plicated and troublesome. Dr. Mercer: I might add that this was done in the case I mentioned in a chamber which could be kept at any desired tem- perature, which is a little addition to the air pump. The President: I would like to ask Professor Conser why he uses celloidin, which costs $1.25 an ounce, when gun-cotton can be got for 25 or 20 cents an ounce; and I feel confident that any one using it will find he gets just as good sections. This gun- cotton is made in America, the celloidin in Germany. I had occasion one time to buy eight or nine ounces of the German, and I kept it very carefully and only used it as I thought we could afford it, and in a little while it would not work at all. I tried it and found it exceedingly acid. In despair I went down town and bought an ounce of gun-cotton for 25 cents, and things com- menced to work. After that I discarded the expensive for the cheap. Professor Ward: May Task the President if he has ever AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 65 had any difficulty in getting a quality of gun-cotton which is free from little fibrous foreign bodies? All I have been able to find - was quite dirty in that way. The President: What I do in that case is to make up the collodion and let it stand a little while; and all that settles to the bottom, so that all the rest is perfectly clear. Or I filter it, but that is not so good a way. If allowed to settle the upper part is very excellent. Professor Eigenmann: Is this gun-cotton precisely the same thing as celloidin ? Professor Gage: Yes. Professor Conser: It won't go off? The President: Yes, they will both go off if you want them to. They are both of them nitro-cellulose, I believe. Professor Conser: I want to add a word in regard to the keeping qualities of celloidin. It must not be kept in air-tight chambers. It can not be kept in glass-stoppered bottles, for example. There will be some decoinposition in that case, especi- ally if kept at the ordinary warmth of the laboratory. Though I have used gun-cotton to a very small extent, I have preferred the celloidin, from the fact that it was easier to dissolve, and more ready at any time for operation. My experience with gun-cotton, however, has not been very much ; it has only been experimental. Dr. Krauss then read a paper: on “ Formalin as a Hardening Agent for Nerve Tissues,’ and Dr. P. A. Fish one on “ The use of Formalin in Neurology.”’ Discussion : The President: Probably no reagent has been discovered and applied to anatomical preparations, to microscopic work, which is going to do so much, help us so much, as this one formol, and every detailed account of experiments will be therefore of the highest value to serve as a guide. I am particularly glad that these two papers have come before the society to give us infor- mation, and I hope that those among the members who have made experiments will tell us of their experience. We then can put all this testimony together and go on more successfully in 5 66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE the future. I hope Professor Kellicott, who has experimented with this substance, will tell us the results he has obtained. Professor Kellicott: I have worked for about a year in pre- serving by this method and I must. say that the result agrees so closely with the results given in the papers that it seems hardly worth while to take any time in stating my experience. I have used the formalin in various solutions, and on a great variety of tissues, in preparing them for museum and anatomical work,andthe results have been most excellent. I think in our laboratory we are going to harden them by one or two changes, then transfer them to about half alcohol and half water, for preservation. This method seems to give us better results than any other we have tried, at least. Formalin hardens animal or other tissues very quickly, and without much shrinkage, as has been said ; and when transferred to alcohol they remain without shrinking, pro- vided itis not too strong. The specimen will be preserved without deposition of coloring matter or sediments, so that really sometimes the formol does not need to be, filtered or changed. It preserves the specimen clear and transparent, perfect in every way. I have used it in preserving the brains of large animals as well as small ones, for museum purposes, and have found nothing like it. It requires less material, less time, and only a quarter of the pains. You can put your specimen into the solution and go off and leave it, and when you come back it will be all right, just as you left it. We have used it also for histological purposes to a limited extent. In that regard we must work further before we are ready to state any general conclusions. As to the odor, I found that some students are unable to use the formalin on that account without great annoyance to them- selves. There was one student in my laboratory who could not use at all a specimen that had been preserved in this way, the irritation was so great. | have had experience, I think, similiar to your own, in prepar- ing anatomical materials for the ordinary dissecting work of the laboratory. I think in that regard it is extremely valuable. AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 67 When the tissues are washed out in the usual way with a salt solution and then injected witha formalin solution of two to four per cent—I mean by volume—the animal will remain, if kept cool, ready for use without any change or shrinkage. - We are using it in that way constantly, and it is so valuable that I want to recommend it to every one who has to prepare animals for the dissecting laboratory. I have had some experience in attemping to stain in bulk before the tissue is hardened, with carmine, for example, and I have had excellent results. When I have had time to experi- ment so as to ascertain the right time and temperature for the work, I am sure it will be of the highest value.* The President: May I ask the writer of the first paper what he had reference to in giving us the percentages? Here is going to come in a real difficulty inthe use of formol. It is a forty-per- cent. solution in water, and when we say we use a two-per-cent. ora one-per-cent. or a four-per-cent. solution, the question immediately arises—it did in my own mind when I came to use it—do we mean that we take 97 or 98 c. c. of water and 2 or 3 c. c. of this formalin solution, or do we mean that we take 95 c. c. of water and 5 c. c. of the formalin solution, that is, to get a truly two-per-cent. solution of formol. In some of the papers that I have heard read the statement has not been distinct as to whether it was by volume, as Professor Kellicott spoke of, where you would use 2 c. c. of the forty-per-cent. solution formalin and ninety- eight per cent. of water, or whether the absolute amount of formol was meant. Dr. Krauss, what did you use? Dr. Krauss: I used two per cent. by volume. The President: That would be then really an eight-tenths-per- cent. solution of the formol. I hope that will always be stated so that there will be no mistake. The chances are if it is not stated that some one who has had training as a chemist may use a really two-per-cent. solution of the formol and that might be too strong. *Professor Kellicott has written a detailed account of his experience with formol, and the secretary has added it to the papers read at the meeting. 68 PROCEEDINGS OF THE Professor Ward: I want to make a few statements in regard to this matter, because my experience, with perhaps a different class of objects, is so absolutely different from what has been reported this morning. If it were only on the basis of my per- sonal experience, I should hesitate to emphasize the point as strongly as I want to do. I know, however, by personal correspondence of experiments carried on at the University of Michigan, at Harvard, and at the Newport Marine Laboratory, and they all agree with my own, that for certain purposes formol is not only useless, but positively bad, worse than useless. Some of you may remember noticing in the January Naturalist, if I re- member correctly, quite an extensive article on the use of formol, by a gentleman working in Professor Kingsley’s laboratory. He was very enthusiastic in praise of formol. By personal cor- respondence with one of our faculty at Lincoln, I have learned that his preparations have all spoiled since that time. He recom- mended formol very highly in the article on the basis of three months’ experience. The same thing was true of my own ex- periments, the same thing was true of experiments at the Newport Laboratory and at Harvard. The preparations are good for a limited time, but histologically at least they are useless after that limited time. How long that time is has not yet, perhaps, been determined. That of course is where the formol is used asa preservative agent, and I think we ought to distinguish sharply between its use as a hardening agent and as a preservative. As a preservative I am convinced that for invertebrates at any rate it is very bad. It gives distorted and incorrect histological features every time. There may be a difference in the action on vertebrate and invertebrate tissues, and I have not experimented with it on vertebrates except for gross anatomy, but for preser- vation of the invertebrates it is very bad. In one of the papers, I think that of Dr. Krauss, I noticed a little sentence that may have something to do with this. He said that in some of his preparations the nerve cells seemed to be slightly swollen, and the nucleus stained very deeply. Is that a beginning of a change opposed to the ordinary shrinking, a AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 69 change by enlargement of the cell which, if it goes on long enough, will result in serious damage to the tissue? Where we are not concerned with a simple diagnosis of a certain kind of cell, but are desirous of securing a correct histological image, or making a careful physiological study of that structure, it is clear that we must have some reagent which will preserve permanently and as nearly as may be the actual character of the cell, neither swollen nor shrunk, but in precisely its actual normal condition, The statement quoted in one of these papers that the coloring matter is preserved, I can distinctly negative for as widely-separ- ated classes of invertebrates as the fresh water mites, crustacea, worms and hydroids. In none of these is the color preserved ordinarily beyond a few days. The color of planarian worms, for instance, both fresh water and marine, while comparatively well preserved up to a month, is entirely lost within a period after that, so that at four months the color is entirely gone, and at that time the worms are in poor condition. In addition to these points let me say that formol is highly volatile, and unless the bottles be very carefully closed the solu- - tion deteriorates rapidly. So for instance we found that at the end of four months an ordinary homceopathic vial corked as closely as the best quality of A A * corks could close it, did not contain a recognizable trace of formol. The specimens had entirely deteriorated, and that not in a single vial nor due to accident, but in a whole series. Whether this can be avoided by the use of vaseline on the corks, I donotknow. Certainly under ordinary conditions formol will disappear very rapidly. Professor Eigenmann: The last point that Dr. Ward mentions is a serious one, since so far as I know now we have no means of testing the exact per cent. of formol that may be in the water ; so that after we have used a solution once for hardening, for instance, it must be thrown away or else we have to deal with a solution whose per cent. we do not know. I have tried the formol—there seems to be a perfect epidemic of formol experi- ments in the country—I have tried it on various things. I tried it on plankton and the plankton would not settle, so at least in 70 PROCEEDINGS OF THE measuring it is useless. We tried it on crayfish and ali of them spoiled, but I think that could be avoided by using a little stronger solution. By injecting the crayfish with a strong solution and then putting it in a weaker, it certainly becomes a beautiful object, and looks as if it were going to crawl off. Frogs can be pre- served so that they look very much alive indeed. On fishes I have tried it and the color utterly disappears. I was in hopes I could preserve the beautiful colors of our fresh-water fishes—and they are certainly the most beautifully colored creatures alive. The formol is also, I think, valuable in injecting into the muscles of larger fishes that are to be preserved. Alcohol does not penetrate quickly enough to preserve them. At Wood’s Holl last summer I put a two-per-cent. solution of formalin in a small vial, and crowded as many little fish into it as I could, fairly jammed them in ; and I must say that a year afterward the fishes are just as hard, just as firm, firmer in fact than when I put them in. [I tried it on tad-poles. They are very hard to preserve. I tried a two-per- cent. solution of formalin, in thirty-five per cent. alcohol, fifty. per cent. alcohol, etc.,and also in simple formalin, and the formalin gave the best results. The tad-poles are so firm that if you take them by the tail and flop them they stand rigid, while, of course, in alcohol preparations they are flabby and very disagreeable. I would suggest that the difficulty regarding the percentage could be avoided by using the name formol for the pure formol, and formalin for the forty-per-cent. solution. I myself have used it that way. Miss Clara Harrison: I have tried some experiments with formalin. Some three years ago, perhaps a little more than that, [ had for sometime been trying to find some solution that would preserve the color of fruits and flowers. I heard of formalin, and as | could find no literature, that is, very meager literature, my experiments with it were rather of a shot-gun kind. Ibegan with five per cent. of the forty-per-cent. solution, and went down to one per cent. I tried it on the Orchidacea, and I am sure their coloring is quite as fine as that of our fishes. I found that the yellows and the purples kept for a long time. I tried, as I AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. mK remember now, one of the Mexican Orchids and it kept clear and perfect for about four months. I might say that I puta grain or two of corrosive sublimate into the solution. For about four months these kept perfectly in a little test tube corked with a rubber cork. I was delighted; and one day I thought I would take it down to the White House, where I had obtained the specimen, and compare it with a fresh specimen. I found the color identical. -But the next morning I was very much disappointed to find the plant white and the solution a beautiful red. So my experience is identical with that of Dr. Ward. It does well for a short time, up to about four months, in a one-per-cent. solution ; but after that I would not like to answer for it, that is, on fruits and flowers. The President: It seems to me that this discussion has brought out the advantage of presenting a subject to a society of people who are interested in the same thing, then by com- paring notes it is possible to see wherein the thing is useful. We have found, I suppose, all of us, that there is no panacea for anything. Formalin is certainly admirable for certain things ; but that does not say it is going to be admirable for everything. A paper on “ New Points in Photo-micrographs and Cameras ”’ was then read by Mr. Walmsley. The President: It was in 1882—before I had ever thought of such a thing as making photographs with the microscope—that I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Walmsley speak upon this subject. I think the society is to be congratulated that we have with us, so to speak, a direct lineal descendant of Woodward. As he has said, the work that Mr. Woodward did showed the world what it was possible to do in the delineation of minute things by photo-micrography. Miss Latham then read a paper on ‘‘ The Question of the Correct Naming and Use of Micro-Reagents.”’ The President: It is not often that we have so vigorous a presentation of a thing, and I do not wonder that Dr. Latham speaks with some feeling, because we have all gone through the Same experiences, more or less, that she has. 72 PROCEEDINGS OF THE Mr. Clark Bell then presented a communication on “ An Inquiry Concerning the Possibility of Distinguishing Arsenic from Different Packages by the Microscope.” It is due to Dr. White that this question has been presented to the Medico-legal Congress, and I thought it might be well to ask the microscopists. of this ‘country if they would give us some aid upon the subject. Any one who wishes to investigate the question can address me and I will respond by mail and send any literature upon the subject. The question arises out of the celebrated murder trial in Connecticut. I will ask Dr. White to explain the details of the case. Dr. White: Inthe famous Hayden trial it was proved that Mr. Hayden had purchased an ounce of arsenic in Middletown, and it was claimed by the State that he had administered this to Mary Stannard. He claimed that he had put the arsenic in his barn, and an ounce of arsenic was found in a tin box in the barn. The State asked whether it was possible to determime whether that ounce of arsenic came from Middletown or not. The arsenic which was found was examined with a microscope and was found to consist of very many crystals with bright reflecting faces, whereas the arsenic in the jar in Middletown had dull, leaden faces. The arsenic found in the stomach also had dull leaden faces. The question was whether these two parcels of arsenic could be distinguished. Many parcels of arsenic were bought from many different firms, to find, if possible, where this arsenic came from. One expert in Chicago has stated that in his opinion this dull, leaden color of the arsenic occurs by deoxidation, but chemists tell us that cannot be. It is probably due to some peculiarity in the grinding. What chemists know as glass arsenic, when ground, will not have transparent reflecting faces. The large crystals found in some places where arsenic is made, if ground up, will also show rough faces; whereas the arsenic found close to the furnace, if ground, will still show many small bright faces. If in this case the arsenic found in the barn was just the same that Mr. Hayden bought in Middletown, it was clear that he might AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 73 be innocent. If it was from some other source it might be that he was guilty. This idea of distinguishing different parcels of arsenic by the microscope was first brought to my attention in Medical Juris- prudence some thirty or forty years ago. In 1860 a lot of crystals were made for me by the chemist in Middletown. I have had some of them preserved ever since ; and I think some of them undergo a process of pitting. It is a question whether if kept for some time they lose weight and form pits in the faces. The paper by Dr. Krauss on ‘* A New Way of Marking Ob- jectives’’ wasthen read. Thetwo following papers were read by title only, viz.: ‘‘ Demonstration of Histological Preparations by the Projection Microscope”’ by Drs. Krauss and Mallonee, and “‘Im- provements in the Collodion Method ”’ by Professor S. H. Gage. Dr. Mercer exhibited an improvement on the Syracuse solid watch glass, having a peculiar shape so that they may be piled together without slipping. | Mr. Pflaum exhibited a metal block for centering slides which he found very convenient. It is figured in his article in this volume of the proceedings. The society then adjourned to 3 P. M. BUSINESS MEETING. Fripay, August 23d. The meeting was called to order at 3 P. M. in the McGraw hall. The Secretary: The Constitution requires that amendments shall not be made except ona year’s notice. Article II provides that membership may be acquired by application in writing, recommendation by two members of the executive committee, and election by the society. Notice is given that next year an amendment will be proposed striking out the words from “ nomination ” to ‘“‘society” inclusive, and so changing it that it shall read ‘“‘ and election by the executive committee.” 74 PROCEEDINGS OF THE The purpose of this is to prevent the long delay, often nearly a year, before persons applying between the meetings could become members, although in practice they were furnished the proceedings like regular members. The President: This notice of amendment then has been duly given, and next year at our meeting it will be acted upon and decided. . The Secretary: A proposition has been submitted that there be two classes of members, or two conditions of membership for life, which would add to our income. The first is that persons or organizations desiring to obtain the proceedings, by paying $50 would be considered as subscribing members, without any other rights of membership ; while those paying $100 would be full-life members, and entitled to take part in the proceedings of the society. The President: This will be considered as due notice that this amendment will be brought up for consideration and final action next year. The proposition concerns membership and requires an amendment to the Constitution. The President: We have difficulty in storing the property of the society, especially the plates. The drawings for these are furnished by the writers, and they are made at the society's expense. I propose that after an article has been published the plates shall go to the writer. I think the plates will do a great deal more good in that way than in the hands of the society, where they are practically a burden. Not one plate in fifty will ever be used again by the society. A person interested enough to make the plate would likely in future work find real use and convenience in having these plates to show some other phase of the subject. Professor Ward: Is this to be retroactive, or simply to deal with the future ? The President: As the stock is a burden to us, it seems that it should refer also to the past as far as possible. Professor Ward: J make a motion then to the effect that the plates now in the possession of the society, or those to be used AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 75 in future publications, be given to the authors of the papers in which they are used. The society is supposed to get enough out of them to pay for making them, otherwise they would never have been made. Now they are so much dead timber on hand, The Secretary: The society expects to keep some of its publications, and there must be a place to store them. It is very unfortunate that there cannot be a permanent place of deposit for all our property. It is not merely a question of the plates, but of back sets and also of donations of the proceedings of other socities, of which we get a good many and would get many more if we had a place to keep them permanently. There are also some preparations and a number of other things. _A great deal more has been lost than we now have on hand. The society is expected to be national and to be permanent. The individual is transitory, and his heirs do not take proper care of such property as plates. Plates that have been prepared by students, say in Cornell University, might be returned and they would be kept properly by the University ; but that is not so with outside contributors. To return to them will be throwing them away. The society has paid for them, and they ought to remain its property and a place provided for them. They take up actually little space—all could be piled under one table. With the exception of the plates for one number, all the plates made before I became secretary have been practically lost. The President: That isa ground on which I proposed that they should be lost by the individual and not by the society. Science is changing and the plates are of little value after a short time, in most cases. Those making the plates may be able to use them once or twice more before they have lost their value. Professor Rowlee: ‘There seems to be the larger question of a permanent home involved. May it not be well to leave the matter to a committee, of which the treasurer shall be chairman, to provide a place for permanent housing of our property? I am sure that the plates prepared in the botanical laboratory here 76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE would be of more use to us in future publications than they could be to the society. They may be used to illustrate some new phase on the same general line. The Secretary: It was stated in a previous meeting that the Buffalo Academy of Arts and Sciences, in whose building the Buffalo Microscopical Club has its home, would afford us a place. I favor a committee to consider that subject. There is much interest in microscopy at Buffalo, and it is conveniently situated. I should think either there or Cornell University the best place. . Mr. Young: It is early in our history to begin giving away things. We may think we must give away other things. I think other members’ should be consulted, and move that the matter be deferred to the next meeting. In the meantime I favor a committee on the subject of a permanent home. Dr. Mercer: I move that the whole matter be referred to a committee of three or five, to consider also the larger question of a home for the society, as well as its property. There we could have a room, collect our books, etc., and meet there not necessarily always, but when we had no other invitations. This motion was seconded. Mr. Milnor: If Pittsburg were made such a home I can guarantee a place for storage that would be fire-proof. Dr. Mercer: Dr. Krauss expressed the same thought to-day as to Buffalo. The President stated the question to be on the amendment to appoint a committee of three, as made by Dr. Mercer. Professor Rowlee: We must notice that we are about to transfer all this material, with the change of office. The President : No, the material is with the treasurer, not with the secretary, according to the Constitution. ( It was explained that the plates had, by special arrangement, been left with the secretary.) Professor Ward: Plates to be useful at all must be used in a very short time. The society will not print the same plate in a volume within a year or two. After that it is of little use. But AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 77 this does not affect the question of considering a permanent home—for the two questions must be distinguished clearly. The Secretary: One paper in the journal this past year was illustrated with a plate used in 1884, and last year. Dr. Stedman applied to me for a plate used in 1882. Dr. Mercer: Such plates would be very useful if in the hands of the society for illustrating historical papers treating of the development of some subject—as I have seen in articles published by the Royal Microscopical Society. The President: The question is on the amendment, that a committee of three be appointed to investigate the whole matter of the property of the society and a permanent home for the society. The President put the motion, which was carried. The President: A proposition has been made to print the Constitution and By-laws—four pages—every year in the pro- ceedings, so that all new members may receive it and know their rights and duties. The Secretary: The proceedings are arranged to bind two years, in a single cover. Every two years there is an index for this double volume, there being only tables of contents with the annual volumes. The Constitution has been put in only once in this biennial volume, not in each annual volume. After discussion, Professor Rowlee moved that the Constitution be inserted in each annual volume. Mr. Pflaum: I move as a substitute that the Constitution be printed separately for distribution. The President: And not bound up in the bound volume ? Mr. Pflaum: No, because not necessary. We could send these pamphlets to persons wishing to know the character of the society. President Gage: The American Association for the Advance- ment of Science prints its constitution: in every volume of its proceedings ; the constitution and list of members are also printed separately for distribution, as suggested. Mr. Pflaum: I then would make an amendment that they be 78 PROCEEDINGS OF THE printed in the proceedings, and also separately for distribution. I would include the list of members. Professor Rowlee accepted the amendment and the motion was carried. The President: Our treasurer has had bound an official copy of our proceedings. It is moved that an official copy be similarly bound for the secretary. Dr. Mercer: It would be well that this set, instead of look- ing exactly like the other, should be marked as being the secretary’s official copy. This amendment was accepted by the mover and the motion as amended was passed. The President: The Spencer-Tolles fund is approximately $400, and is invested in a building association or fund in Ohio, netting six per cent. The treasurer proposes to transfer it to a similar association in Pittsburg where it will net ten per cent., and be safe. The executive committee has referred this to the society for action. Mr. Pflaum: This building and loan society in Pittsburg is not a merely speculative and insecure one. It is national, and its officers, whom I know personally, are well-known and per- fectly trustworthy men. In seven years the fund will be at least $1,000. The association has been paying fifteen per cent., but interest is falling everywhere and they do not expect over ten per cent, soon The Secretary: This is an important matter and not of the kind that we as a society are well fitted to decide. It depends on judgment and investigation. I make a motion to refer the matter to a committee of gentlemen residing in Pittsburg, three members to be appointed by the President, with power to act if in their judgment it is the best thing to do. Mr. Pflaum: I amend the motion by saying that the full membership of this society residing at Pittsburg be the committee. The Secretary: I accept the amendment. Mr. Milnor: I approve of what Professor Seaman has said. [he society itself should not attempt to judge at a distance. AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 79 We should investigate thoroughly before the money is placed in the hands of any society, especially a building and loan society.’ Dr. Mercer: I utterly oppose the investment of the money in that way. Mr. Spencer and Mr. Tolles were men who would have little sympathy with such a proposition. They would prefer three per cent. in a safe place, to twenty per cent. in a building society. If Mr. Spencer understood the principles on which these societies are conducted he would oppose it. As I under- stand it, they advertise to investors a high return—ten or twelve per cent., and to borrowers remarkably cheap loans. But that is impossible. It is the old story—the man who buys his coal by the bushel pays a higher price. Mr. Spencer would be the last to make him do that. The Secretary: The object of the motion is that the com- mittee shall do what in their judgment seems best—and I think the society will be willing to trust these members. I think Dr. Mercer must be under misapprehension as regards building associations, for statistics of the United States show. that no other investment is so safe. But there are different kinds of associations. I should want to know the character of the men. Mr. Milnor: I think if the matter is left to gentlemen in Pittsburg it will be safe. I know this association to be first class. But it has brought its rate of interest down now and _ will eventually be much lower, so it may not bring over six per cent.; and if that is the case I think bonds at six per cent. would be a preferable investment. Dr. Mercer: I do not think we ought to place this money in any institution where any -person can even use the word suspicious with reference to it. This fund has been obtained with great difficulty and must not be lost. I believe it should be taken from Ohio, and it would be safer to put it into a savings bank at Pittsburg where it would probably pay four per cent. Building associations are not the place for trust funds. I should be afraid of an institution paying ten per cent. when money is begging everywhere at two per cent. Mr. Plaum: If the money had not already been in a build- 80 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ing association I perhaps might not have suggested putting it in this one. This one is better than that. A building society is only a co-operative savings bank. The reason it pays such large profits could be readily explained ; it depends on the com- pounding of interest largely. The members get the difference between six per cent, and ten per cent., taken by the proprietors of savings banks. These associations have been of greatest benefit to the poor men of Pennsylvania. The former opposition to them—e. g. that of the courts, has been overcome by their results. I think a committee could be trusted to treat this as a sacred fund, as it Is. ; Mr. Young: As I understand it the committee is not bound, by the motion, to change the fund or to put it in a building society, but as they see fit. The Secretary: Yes,the resolution reads that the members of the society residing in Pittsburg shall form a committee to invest the Spencer-Tolles fund. Mr. Phaum: (Answering a question.) There are about seven active members in Pittsburg. It might be better that the President appoint three or five out of these, as it would take some time to sound all of them personally. I withdraw my amendment and leave the original motion for a committee of three or five. . Mr. Milnor: I want the responsibility to come from the Association—let the President appoint the committee. The President: The motion then is that a committee of three be appointed by the chair to re-invest the Spencer-Tolles fund. Mr. Phaum: The change is necessary. The only member at the time of the investment in Urbana, Ohio, has resigned, and there is not a soul to look after the money there. The motion as’stated by the chair was now put, and carried. The Treasurer presented his report. Dr. Mercer: I move that the report be accepted and adopted, and that we thank the Treasurer for bringing to our attention the character of the investment of this fund. The President put the motion, which was carried, and then AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 81 stated that the executive committee recommend that 500 copies of the proceedings be printed. . Mr. Pflaum: This matter might perhaps best be deferred until a permanent place of storage is decided on. As it is, our extra copies take about 200 cubic yards and it costs $12 a year to store them, without insurance. We have about 225 active members. Dr. Moody: I move the society publish 300 copies. The Treasurer stated the number of copies of each issue actually on hand, viz.: YEAR. YO COPIES. | YEAR. NO. COPIES. LOG Se a ia: SO een pet UD 2: Hees ons, ad 57 iste ean he hae 30 SS Of eee ieee ae et SF) 246 TEST 2. . aL wee ee Ae F892 =SPartialitiyes ees cies. Le 185 Tio. Seng ae on os 43 Parties: SLA re Poneer te ak. ok. ee eo Bantu rere cee: 76 UG ee ee Re 6 L893 —SParti lee ranrs aes ote en HB ISIS. 2 Seg See 44 Parte il ce eee. 53 Llelol Gis Se RS I MMe tli te 35 arta teens oo. ehh 126 LSS ee PPS Se ee ee 236 Jedriniy Zine 8 We 152 LISIEISIG cas cok tS aa ee A eae 154. i [poh Aa A a a aa a a le MSC chat i. co cclbbel cncrdvsieipis te 175 *Of these numbers the Secretary has several copies. If any members could supply duplicates of 1884 to the Treasurer it would add to our complete sets, Professor Ward: It is evident that even of the number in 1893, of which we have the most on hand, 350 copies were used. We can never tell when one of the papers may find a consider- able sale—they often do. If we get a permanent home it will be no trouble to store even 250, while the lack of numbers at any time when they are really desired is a very serious matter. The cost of printing extra copies, not requiring type setting, is comparatively very little. The President: The question is on the amendment changing the 500 to 300. The amendment is lost. Now we will proceed with the original motion, that 500 copies of the proceedings this year be published, and also as many copies of the Constitution, By-laws and list of members, as in the wisdom of the executive committee is desirable. The Secretary: The society furnishes to each author in the proceedings 25 ‘‘ separates’ made by dividing up 25 of the 500 6 82 PROCEEDINGS OF THE copies printed. As the Constitution, By-laws and list of members are to be printed in each volume, this separation leaves 25 copies of them, which can be used as desired. I have always furnished lists of members, to people asking for them, out of these copies. There has never been demand for more than that. Thereupon the motion as above stated by the chairman was carried. The President: The next question is whether the proceed- ings shall be printed as a single volume, as was done until the Rochester meeting, or in four separate numbers, as has been done since. The proposition is submitted by the executive com- mittee without recommendation. Professor Rowlee: I move the printing of the proceedings in a single volume. The secretary just elected stated to me, knowing that the matter was coming up, that he thought it highly advisable that the proceedings be in a single volume.. He did not believe he would be able to bring out four separate numbers and do it promptly. The work has been very hard for the present secre- tary. It really requires four times the technical work and care. It keeps one struggling the whole year instead of three months. I believe the incoming secretary can keep his promise to get out the entire proceedings of this meeting before the holidays. The present method was an experiment. Dr. Seaman was willing to give us the necessary time, as he has done; but he could not keep it up permanently. In spite of Dr. Seaman’s best efforts the numbers have at times been delayed, and the work has been severe. The President: I would prefer one number, and to look that through, and not to have to tie the four up with a string before they are bound. I have had a good deal to do with the printing —of course only a fraction of what the secretary has done, and I am convinced that to ask anyone to go over the task four times is asking too much. Editing the whole proceedings need not be much more work than one part. A person capable of being secretary can hardly afford the time. The last number for last AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 83 year did not appear till after the meeting, and this year’s last number will not come out until after this meeting, in spite of our best efforts. The question is that the proceedings for this year be published in a single volume. The motion is carried. Professor Ward: There is to be started with the begin- ning of the year a scientific undertaking in Europe that is to be international and of such a character that I want to bring it prominently before you, and urge action of the society in three directions. Most of you know the great difficulty of tracing bibliographical references, the extreme incompleteness of the present system of Bibliography. There is to be established in Zurich a bibliographical bureau for zoology, which will go into operation January 1, 1896. It absorbs the Zoologischer Anzeiger, and the /Jahresbericht, which is published at the Naples station; it absorbs the Archiv fir Naturgeschichte, at least the second volume, which publishes a résumé of the work in the different portions of the animal kingdom for each year ; it absorbs some other minor bibliographical publications ; and it is hoped another year that it will include also the English Zoo- logical Record, thus giving in the scope of a single enterprise all the bibliographical notices of the world. In France a sub- committee to push the matter is very thoroughly organized, and the organization of the American side is thoroughly under way In France the subcommittee is under the supportand encouragement of the Zoological Society of Paris. Sub-committees have already been organized in Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Russia, Germany and England. The members who furnish the bibliographical records for the bureau give their services free. There are two or three paid officials in connection with the bureau itself, one of whom being the very well-known Professor Carus, of Leipsic, editor of the Zoologischer Anzeiger, who is to give his entire time for the munificent sum of $500 a year. This shows you that the enterprise is a purely scientific one. The men who are working in it are not doing it for the sake of 84 PROCEEDINGS OF THE gain, but in the effort to lighten the labors of the workers in this field throughout the world. The bureau proposes to record all publications which touch upon zoology, and to have the recording done not by librarians— and you know that the cards sent out by library associa- tions for scientific topics sometimes include Rotifera among the Infusoria, and make all sorts of mistakes—but by zoologists who know exactly what they are doing. The bureau is to have two publications, a fortnightly bulletin and a card catalogue. The bulletin is to be in exactly the same shape as the lists and short reviews or résumés of contents now given by the ‘ Zoologischer Anzeiger.’ The card catalogue is to have these same, but each printed on a card after the fashion recommended by the Library Association. It is expected to receive subscriptions to both of these, and also that the bureau will be able of offer specialists subscriptions to that portion of the bulletins or cards which deals with their special work—as for instance that part of the bulletin dealing with entomology and the cards dealing with that subject. There are three things that the bureau asks, and must have if it is to succeed. It asks in the first place a certain subsidy, for in the first two or three years it is practically certain that it cannot pay expenses. The Swiss, French and German govern- ments have already granted subsidies—the Swiss gave $400. I had an interview in New York with the gentleman who is at the head of the whole enterprise, who has put all of his time, and of his fortune—not a great one—into the undertaking. He told me the particulars of the votes by the several governments, but I have forgotten some of them. The government in this country can not take such a part as this. The matter can only be pushed by bringing it before the learned societies. In this country a subscription of $250 in addition to what has already been raised is all that is asked. This is not an exorbitant share, [am sure, The German Academy of Sciences, let me say, has voted a subsidy to the undertaking. There are three societies here that can be looked to for a subsidy—the Association for the AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 85 Advancement of Science, the American Society of Naturalists, and our own society. ' What else is collected must be from private persons or local societies. I know it is difficult to raise even a small sum. The executive committee has discussed it, and it is easy to see that the society is not rich. But I should like to ask the society for $25—a very small sum. I ask this more for the reason that I want to see the society in line with this work, which is for the benefit of the whole world and of every worker in this country. Second, the bureau asks that we send a free copy of our publications. And third it asks subscriptions for its publications, but of course this concerns private persons rather than this society. The President: If the chair may be allowed, I should like most heartily to second this motion. I may add that since the meeting of the executive committee, I have received a letter from Dr. Kingsley saying that the combined societies in the American Society of Naturalists have given a very cordial endorsement of the movement, and that he counts on us for help. “Cannot and will not you help us?” is the last sentence. It seems to me that our society which publishes proceedings, wishes them to be made known widely in just this way—we do not want to be ina corner. I am happy to say that on talking with some members of the society I can say that if this vote is passed by the society it shall not come out of the treasury or from the ordinary income of the society. It shall have the honor, if it is such, of making the gift, but it shall not bear the expense. All those in favor of giving our proceedings to this Bibliog- raphical Bureau, and of granting a subsidy of $25, please say aye. | The motion is carried. (It was stated by Professor Ward that this subsidy was for one year only and did not bind the society after that.) The President: I think that finishes the business of the society, except for what we recognize as a pleasant function as well as one of our duties, and that is our words of appreciation for the kindness of the people of the place at which we meete 86 PROCEEDINGS OF THE The first vote, I think, we all recognize, should be given to the University for the welcome that has been given us, and for the facilities offered for this meeting. Professor Ward: We must all recognize that the success of the meeting has been largely due to the place in which it has been held. Entirely aside from the fact that Cornell University has honored us with “A.M. S.,’ witness these buttons—and a Master’s degree from Cornell University is a matter of congratu- lation certainly for each of us—entirely aside from that, the cor- dial reception which has been given us by the officers of the Uni- versity, the way in which everyone has made us feel at home within these walls, will cause all to carry away a feeling that Cornell University keeps a unique place in our thought. To those of us who are college men no affection can be quite like that which one feels for his alma mater, but I must confess that after the very pleasant time which I have had here, there is a second place, comparatively near that, which will be given to Cornell University ; and it is with a great deal pleasure that I move that we extend to the President, the officers and faculty of Cornell University our sincere thanks for the very cordial invita- tion and reception which they have given us, and for the facilities which they have placed in our hands, aiding. us in holding the most successful meeting of the society which it has been my privilege to attend. The President: You have heard the motion, ladies and gentle- men. All those in favor of this motion will rise—that is the kind of voting one likes to see. Next to the University, I think, we have to thank our local committee. If anyone has ever beena member I feel quite sure he would agree with me in that. Mr. Seaman: Mr. President, having been secretary of the Society several years, I think I am in a position to say some- thing about the local committee. The first year in which my active duties as secretary began was at Washington, and there we had an active local committee. The next to the last year of my duties was at Brooklyn, where there was no local committee and AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 87 nothing else. Now the difference between those two extremes of conditions measures the difference between a successful meet- ing of the society and a failure. There is nothing that can make up for a want of interest in the place where the society meets, as regards some at least of the conditions of a successful meeting. Of course, if the society is strong in members, and those members attend from all over the country, they can have a good meeting where there is nothing but a house to cover them. But that is not usually the case. There are certain requirements of attend- ance, of providing for the comfort of members, of showing inter- est in the meeting which contributes enthusiasm to those who come from a distance; and more than that, if we look over the meetings of the Microscopical Society, you will see that on several occasions in the early days of the society the meetings have been redeemed from failure by the activity of one or two men in the place where the meeting was held. I think that I might refer to the meeting at Elmira particularly as an instance. So the meeting at Columbus, Ohio, which was one of the first that I attended, was such that it seemed to me at that time that the society had touched a very low ebb, and had it not been for the efforts of one or two of the local members there would scarcely have been any meeting. Now ina society that is in the early days of what we hope will be a prosperous future, the local com- mittee is one of the principal pillars upon which it must rest. And in the case of our meeting here, I can say most heartily and earnestly that the local committee has done the largest part of the work, that to it is largely due the success of this meeting. I therefore offer a resolution of thanks to the local committee from the very bottom of my heart, that its members have lightened my labors and made the meeting a success. The President: I think that I will proceed with the original method and not take a vote, because I am sure that is in the heart of every one of us. Next to the local committee we have to thank the city of Ithaca. As I said in my remarks in answer to the address of welcome, we had not hoped so very much from the city. That 88 PROCEEDINGS OF THE was wrong in us. We misjudged the city. When we went to them we found their hearts open, and they stayed open; and the next time we have a meeting we shall not go with any doubt to the men of the city, but with full confidence. I hope there will be given in the heart of every one of us a hearty vote of thanks for the city, and I would call upon Dr. Moody, who was a student here for many years, and who knows the city better than I do, to say a few words to us concerning it. Dr. Moody: I must confess that I felt a little surprise when our President announced that he approached the people of the city with what we might call fear and trembling, with regard to the reception of the society ; because it was my experience as a student here that when anything was started on the campus the town was always behind us. Surely in this case it was so. I heard the chairman of the local committee the other day on the street telling what great success he had had in the work he was doing among the citizens. I am sure we all felt from the time that we were welcomed by Mr. Van Vleet at the opening of the meeting, that the hearty welcome he gave us, came from his heart and from the hearts of the people—we felt that their hearts were open to us. And Iam sure as we sailed down this beautiful lake yesterday afternoon, amidst your delightful breezes, we all felt then that the citizens had an interest in us, and that the street-car company also, which carried us up and down these hills, had an interest in us. I feel that each one of us will be glad to come to Ithaca again, where we have received so warm a welcome, to accept the invitation which has been extended to us indefinitely for some future time. I therefore move a vote of thanks to the citizens of Ithaca for their cordiality to us. The President: I would like to put the motion that has just been made, namely: that we render the citizens of Ithaca a hearty vote of thanks for their courtesy to us, and their warm welcome to the city, The motion is carried. The President: When the chairman of the local committee and myself were discussing this meeting, the question of the press AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 89 arose immediately in our minds. What help could we get in. giving information about the society, and for the encouraging and interesting of the people here in Ithaca in the society? The chairman of the local committee went to the papers in Ithaca, and the welcome there was cordial. You who have seen the papers since you have been here I know cannot help feeling that the press of Ithaca has done everything that it possibly could to make our meeting asuccess. They have acted, as the Honorable Mr. Van Vleet said in the beginning, as though they felt honored in the presence of the society in their midst, and they have done for us, if one remembers the limited space of the great papers nowadays, a great deal. I would ask some one to say a few words on what the press has done for us in our meeting. Mr. Plaum: A sure test of the grade of civilization of a race, of a nation, lies in the short phrase, ‘‘ What’s going on?” —both in the question and in the answer, and especially how that answer is recorded, so that neither wind nor weather, nor time, even, can ever blot it out. The question with the savage refers to immediate bodily needs, and the answer dies with the acqui- sition of his physical requirements. With advancing civilization the question broadens in scope, and takes in friend and neighbor, and gradually it leaps over territorial bounds till finally it takes in all of society, and records its answer for future generations. How painful is the attempt of our remote ancestors to tell us what was going on. The invention of form writing, of hier- oglyphics, to tell even a simple event, must have taken years of the writer. With the invention of the alphabet the recording of that answer was made more easy, but the process remained at best a rude and slow one. It was the invention of printing that gave the greatest aid. The art of printing gave an impulse for more questioning and a wider answer. To-day the question and answer to “‘ What is going on?” has become centralized in the most civilized nations, and their standing is measured by the quantity, quality and freedom of that grand modern organism known as the press. Our society most gratefully acknowledges that our work and go PROCEEDINGS OF THE aims have been recorded and spread broadcast as part of the answer by the press to the question, ‘“‘ What is going on?” We have been aided and benefited, and our labors lightened by the help that is has afforded. The press of this city has nobly per- formed its functions, it has faithfully recorded our endeavors to add our part to human advancement. We appreciate the kindly feeling and generous spirit of the press of Ithaca, and tender it a most cordial au revoir. The motion of thanks to the press of Ithaca was put and carried. Professor Rowlee: I should like to make a few remarks in regard to the privileges that have been extended to us in another relation, and I think I can do so without blushing. I think many of the members do not understand how much we have to thank the railroads and the street railroads of this city for the success of this meeting. It was with a good deal of embarrassment that I asked for the privilege of reduced rates to this meeting. I feared that there might be some question as to whether we were entitled to the privilege. I expected when I went to meet the agent of the Trunk Line Association to find a strictly business and railroad man, who would be very strict in his treatment of us. But when I met the gentleman his first words were: ‘We want to do for you people everything that we can. We realize that you are working for the advancement of civilization in this country, that you are doing it freely, and we want to do everything for you that we can.” He has treated us in every way most cordially. I am sure that any man who has to do with this gentleman, or with the other railroad men of the country, in regard to meetings for the furthering of human knowledge, will have a very cordial reception, and he should not be afraid to ask for anything. In regard to the street railroad, the mere asking was the having of the privilege of your riding free over their lines to the lake. I did not ask them to carry you free all the time you were here [am not sure but they would if I had asked them. The President of this society has often reminded me that when AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. gt he wanted anything done that required a great deal of courage | —he did not call it courage, however, he called it cheek, but I think courage is a better word—he sent for me. But my courage failed when I thought of asking free transportation during the whole meeting. I move that we tender a vote of thanks to the Trunk Line Association of the Central States, and to the Street Railway Company of Ithaca for the courtesies which they have extended to us during our meeting. The motion is carried. The President: This completes our program, I believe, with one exception, and that is the pleasant duty of the President to resign his chair to the incoming President. I wish to say that I have only sincere gratitude to the society for the cordiality that I have received at their hands. I hope that the incoming President will receive the same. I feel sure that he will, and I think that if we go on with the society, each one of us trying to do the very best he can, going in the spirit of true scientific brotherhood, there won’t be any question ever arising as to whether we are being treated properly or not. We won't think anything about it. It is like the best kind of digestion ; we don’t know that we have any stomach while we are all right. It is only when we are dyspeptic that we know it—that we feel as the little boy did after the Thanksgiving dinner, when he asked his mother if the turkey was alive again. There will never be any question of that kind with us. Weare helping our friends ; they are helping us. I am frank to say that a great many of the things that have been stated on this platform have given me the greatest help, and real inspiration. It perhaps may not be modest for me to say it, but it seemed to me as [| listened to these papers, that in a great many of the societies I have attended before, we have not had any that have exceeded these, to say the least. If I may say in a general way, not to be egotistic, it has done my heart good to see the genial look on the faces of the people as I looked into them. Nobody seemed to feel that he was being abused; nobody looked as if he was not enjoying 92 PROCEEDINGS OF THE himself. Everybody seemed to think that things were going rightly, and that look encourages the presiding officer and the one who is reading the paper, and thus it makes the meeting a success. Dr. Mercer—when acting as President, the best I can say for you, the best wish I can have for you, is that you will be accorded the same pleasant treatment. Mr. Milnor: I think that one thing which always makes a great deal, at least. depends upon it —is the manner ia which the presiding officer discharges his these gatherings pleasant duties. And I think we all would like to express our apprecia- tion to the President of the past year for the manner in which he has discharged his duty, his courtesy and the way in which he has made us all feel perfectly at home. I regret exceedingly that this task of expressing to him our feelings, the most pleasant one, I think, of all, has not been placed in the hands of some one more eloquent than myself, one that could speak forth the sentiments that I know ‘have filled the hearts of every one who has attended these meetings. I therefore with the utmost pleasure—it is one of the greatest pleasures of my life—move that a standing vote of thanks be extended to Professor Gage for the manner in which he has discharged his duty to this meeting. : ( Applause and a standing vote of all the members.) President Gage: I thank you gentlemen, most heartily, for this vote of thanks. Inaugural remarks of the new President. President Mercer: /ellow members—I thank you for the honor that you have conferred upon me by your choice. It is an honor which I feel, and an honor at the same time which I know perfectly well means something in the way of work. So far as I am able to work for you I shall be happy to do so. I hope that your wishes will be freely expressed in one and another, so that I may know what to do. If I could carry that face, which is beaming and smiling before us, as our old President did, I have no doubt I should see beams and smiles in the faces all around me. He forgot in wishing for AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 93 me the same cordial reception, that he but saw round about him the reflection of his own face. I think it is a rather hard thing for a successor of Professor Gage to get those smiles. However, I am at your service and your pleasure. The society then adjourned. Friday evening, August 23, at eight o’clock, the society held a soirée in the University gymnasium and armory, which was attended by a large number of visitors from Ithaca. About sixty microscopes were in use, and those present expressed a great deal of pleasure at the opportunity afforded to examine objects by the microscope. As one of the incidents of the occasion, Professor Burr, who entertained the society so pleasantly with his literary treasures, assured the writer that, although connected with the university several years, he never before had looked through a microscope. This entertainment closed one of the most successful meetings the American Microscopical Society has ever enjoyed. [ The letter of Dr. Seaman resigning the position of editor and secretary of the society, also the resolutions expressing the society’s thanks and hearty approval of his labors, have been misplaced aud could not be obtained by the present secretary to insert in the proceedings —W. C. K.] TREASURER'S” REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING AUG. 21, 1895. RECEIPTS. @ashyon hand at Brooklyn Meetineye +... -eeeeeeee $180.32 Membership Dues for 1888— 1 ..........:....5.. Lae ce eit $ 2.00 as AMD Colot! Ms MES OL LGN ar ch ANU ne ae 2.00 Ks 1892, Ay eames “Gin kde Sia biaay cee 8.00 - 6 $808—. 4S: Ae een eee 8.00 es C1894 (254) ce eee eee ie eee 51.00 es fF F895 2028. Lise ihn Sher sle peaiebe ee hae aiegh Oa e 405.20 s « 1896— |. G2 .5stae Bea oper seh eee 12.80 489.00 Admission Fees for 1892——— alee el aera ere =e 200 se ‘f) 91895 > 10 Oe ie aa ee eee 30.00 33.00 Sale: of Proceedings. a... cstion cae e sae ee Oren Sea 12.80 $715.12 Brooklyn Prize. Fund. 3.5. eae eer ane cerca 30.00 $745.12 EXPENDITURES Postage: 2... 5./ocsol.u. Js es oa oe eee eee $ 29.41 IXpressage. 2). 44 .\anied shoe ae ee ae eee 13.82 Stationery and Printing 1894. ... 4. 2..2...5..25. 5. 1.75 ‘P se st 1995 ke ee eee 16.75 Sundries 300. 2. ate eke cele tes, Saree a eee 3.75 Binding Official Copy of Proceedings............. 10.50 igsuine’ Part. 4, Vol. X'Vi.cicacoseaece eee ltt esti} es és. “1,2 and 3). Volpi cs oe ee 394.49 $648 . 20 Cash on hand at opening of Meeting at Ithaca.... 96.92 - $745.12 SPENCER-TOLLES FUND. Reported at Brooklyn Meeting’... 25. J... 22 css « $349.38 Interest received during year 1894-95. ..................... 22.89 | $372.27 MAGNUS PFLAUM, Treasurer. We hereby certify that we have examined the foregoing accounts, and find the same correct with proper vouchers for expenditures. F. W. KUEHNE. Ithaca, N. Y., August 22, 1895. D. S. KELLICOTT. SOME NOTES ON ALLEGED METEORIC DUST. MacGnus PFLaum, Pittsburg, Pa. The Spectroscope has made known that matter is universal ; that elements constituting the earth are also contained in other celestial bodies. It is, however, very human to endeavor phys- ically to perceive what mentally we know, especially if the object is from extra-terrestrial spheres. This feeling of curious interest must have animated the members of the Calcutta Microscopical Society, when, at one of their meetings, a substance was presented to them described as follows : “The coarse-grained, dark-colored dust which drifts, as all “Calcutta residents are aware, into the leeward corners of our “flat house-tops, is found to contain, mixed with dried portions ‘of organic matter, certain magnetic and hyaline granules which ‘““present appearances highly indicative of previous fusion. “These appear mostly as opaque or translucent spheroidal ‘bodies, sometimes single and isolated, and sometimes composed “of more than one spherule fused together, varying in size from “to'c0 tO 35 Of an inch in diameter. The opaque bodies vary sail Pee from black to rusty red, whilst the transparent spheres, “by transmitted light, are light brown or yellowish like colored “glass. They frequently include bubbles, patches of granular ““matter, and more rarely crystals. The surfaces are usually “smooth, and occasionally bubble-like protuberances bulge out “on the sides. Composite grains are not uncommon in which a ‘“‘ glassy mass protrudes from an opaque body. Particles present- ‘“‘ing these characters have been obtained from house-tops widely ‘separated from one another and at considerable height, as on “the tower of the High Court, facts which are of importance “in considering any ‘conclusions as to the origin of this “‘ material.’’* The members inclined to assign to these particles a meteoric origin. # Am. Mo. Mic. J., Vol. XIV., page 72. _ 96 PROCEEDINGS OF THE It was no great leap of thought to cause the writer to speculate upon the possible presence of such “meteoric matter” in the Court House tower at Pittsburg, Pa., though it required more “than a leap to carry that thought into action, by climbing the steep ascent to the top floor of the tower. This floor is about 250 feet from the street, with open, narrow windows on all sides, allowing winds to pass in and out in all directions. For this reason comparatively little dust was found in the floor corners. But what little was obtained was an ‘‘ omnium gatherum,” indeed. What it did not contain might be easier to mention. But a magnet separated the desirable matter from the dross, which, upon being cleaned, showed the presence of the identical globules, iron and hyaline, described above, as found in Calcutta. But were these little strangers sent as visitors from some celestial body ? Doubtful. Whether as solid or gas they could not have left their former abode. The law of gravity would pre- vent even heavier particles to leave a starry globe. Why could they not be made artificially and thrown into the air by glass houses and iron works? Pittsburg having both of these industries in abundance, it seemed proper to make a practical investigation. A visit to a glass house at once proved that no glassy globules can be sent out of the ‘‘ Clay Pots” wherein glass is melted. The pot is almost hermetically sealed. Fire surrounds the vessel, merely melts, does not vaporize the con- tents. The pot has no opening permitting glass, or any possible vapor, to escape intoa chimney. However by way of precaution some dust was taken from the opening in the pot out of which, when ready, the glass is lifted. Upon examination nothing but grains of sand and fine strings of glass were found. Next, a blast furnace was visited, and a quantity of ‘ flue dust ” obtained ; but in it nothing but ragged pieces of coke and iron found. The Bessemer converter yielded better results. The cold blast admitted causes a seething white heat in the metal and drives out all impurities, which on reaching a colder stratum of air, are solidified in the form of spherules, and the ground around is covered with what looks like gunshot of all sizes, some AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 97 microscopical. These would answer our quest, were it not that. no hyaline globules could be found in the gathering. The next gathering was from the refining department of a rolling mill. After three days of showers, the roof having thereby been well washed, a quantity of fresh deposit was pro- cured. This, upon being cleansed, produced, ’midst iron and other particles of all shapes, the identical globules in large quantity, exactly in every particular described as found in Calcutta. There were not only reguar iron and hyaline spheres, but all-the various zregu/ar particles, some even with both hyaline and iron excrescences. There being no doubt that these pretty little bodies are a product of iron mills the question remains, how did they come to Calcutta? If there are no iron works there, then they must be blown across from Europe. The winds blow easterly. In iron works are high chimneys witli strong drafts. It is therefore not at all unlikely that these particles are sent up a comparatively high altitude, received by easterly winds and deposited in regions beyond. SOME MODIFICATIONS OF STEMS AND ROOTS FOR PURPOSES OF RESPIRATION. HERMANN VON SCHRENK, The conditions surrounding many of our swamp and marsh plants are such as to render the free absorption of oxygen a com- paratively difficult matter. This applies particularly to the organs growing in the mud and water, the roots, rhizomes and bases of stems. In the majority of land plants oxygen is taken up by these organs through the epidermis by diffusion, and is carried from there to the cortical parts where it is needed. In the water this free diffusion is rendered difficult and often nearly impossible. In such cases we find the plant adapting itself by varying and changing its structure, so as to enable it to grapple with the new conditions. Such variation may be in one of several directions (5), by increasing the absorbing surface, by facilitating diffusion by means of large intercellular spaces, or by producing organs or tissues better fitted to absorb the necessary gases. Inthe extended root system of Mikania and some of the palms we find an example of the first change, the stem of the water lilies may represent the second, and the tissues of Decodon Verticillatus ( Nese@a Ver- ticillata) Jussi@a complete the series.. Whether these plants, z. ¢. species, which are so modified, have shown such structure from the beginning of their existence is a question. We may recall the explanation of Shaler (1) with regard to the cypress knees. He considered the cypress a tree of earlier geologic times than our own, crowded into the swamps at the present time by more favored rivals. Here, under the adverse conditions of respiration, it developed the knees. On the hillsides, where the old conditions prevailed, no knees were formed. In the case of Decodon, Lycopus and others, I believe, we see something akin to this. AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 99 There are at present, then, a number of piants which have, in their later stages, contrivances or organs enabling them to obtain oxygen more easily than without such contrivances. The latter have become, in the majority of cases, recognized characters of their species, such as Decodon, Jusst@a, etc. The remaining ones seem to have a greater plasticity of organization in this respect. During the past year I had occasion to observe the habits of several of this class. Lycopus sinuatus, Ell.is a labiate growing ina variety of habitats, from dry borders of woods to deeper swamps. If a specimen from a dry location be taken, one will find the lower portion of the stem and the rhizome of about the same size as the aérial stem. The characteristic sclerenchyma fibres in the corners of the stem lie immediately below the epidermis. Specimens from a swamp show a very different structure. The lower portion of the stem is very much swollen apparently, decreasing in size as one leaves the water going upwards. Examination will show the epidermis ruptured in many places, often entirely gone, exposing to the surrounding air a mass of white, spongy tissue extending to the vascular ring. The tissue consists of elongated cells linked by smaller cells, forming a coarse network, as it appears, with large inter- cellular spaces, cavities one might almost call them. The origin of this tissue is similar to that found in Decodon (3). That the formation of this tissue is due directly to the position of the plant in the water, I am thoroughly convinced. Many specimens were collected near Southold, Long Island, growing at the edge of a pool in sphagnous ground. These had the “‘zerenchyma”’ tissue developed to a large extent. On a tree stump in this sphagnous ground other specimens of Lycopus flourished a foot or more above the water level. These had zo sign of the tissue. In all there were some 20 individuals on this stump. Other stumps near by and in neighboring swamps gave the same result. A fact which I have observed, but am at present unable to explain, is that @// individuals of this species growing in damp places do not develop the zrenchyma, as all individuals of Decodon do, for instance. One will often find in the same swamp some with, others without, 100), PROCEEDINGS OF THE this tissue. I believe in some parts of the country the Lycopus never develops this tissue ; in Central New York I was unable to find it. The same may be asked of another plant, Ludwigia Sphero- carpa. This plant grows luxuriantly in the muddy borders of some ponds on Long Island. I collected it at Manor, L. lL. The stems grow out from the mud with a layer of zrenchyma nearly one-half inch in thickness around them, the layer extend- ing nearly afoot above the surface of the water. Its appearance is in every respect similar to the layer in Decodon, so similar that I mistook the plant for Decodon several times. I have not col- lected this plant sufficiently to say that it may grow without zrenchyma, as does Lycopus sinuatus, but it evidently does, to judge from such notes as ‘‘Bark below often spongy-thickened”’ * (italics my own) and others of similar nature. Some individ- uals on the bank in moist sand had less of the tissue than those in deep water. Before proceeding to another group of plants I would record an instance of Decodon Verticillatus growing in a dried-up pond. I had no means of telling absolutely how long the pond had been dry, but it appeared to have been partially filled early in spring. The clumps of Decodon grew a foot above the pond bottom on tufts of Careces, many of the stems having bent over in the characteristic manner. The bases of the stems showed a very slight development of azrenchyma tissue, but every plant had some of it. The tissue was shrunken and to all appearances was dead, and had been so for some time. This is:what one might have expected, the water gone, the need for aérating tissue was no longer there, and it ceased to function. It will be of interest to follow these plants in their next year’s growth. Besides the plants noticed so far, we find modifications for respiration in many shrubby plants, which may, as respects the adaptation, be classed with those in Lycopus, etc. The most striking example of this which I have been able to find, is the common elder, Sambucus Canadensis, L. This is in the true * Gray’s Manual, p. 188. AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. IOI sense of the word not a swamp plant in most places. Its habitat is given by Gray as “rich soil in open places.” It grows along fences and along stream banks. In Long Island its favorite habitat is on the borders of inlets from the bays and marshy banks of streams and ponds, oftentimes in water a foot deep. Fig. 1 represents a small plant taken from a pond near Eastport. One is struck by the great swelling which the stem has evidently undergone below the water. (A-Z is the water line, the stem having grown somewhat obliquely.) All over the surface are snow-white excrescences of a warty nature, varying in size and shape. These decrease in size and number as one goes upwards from the water,and some inches above it one finds them merging over into the ordinary lenticels (Fig. 1, Z.). The white spongy tissue is at once proven to consist of cork cells (Fullzellen) pro- truding from a structure of lenticellular character. These cells are developed from a meristem at a surprising rate ; in many cases the protuberances were two inches in length, three-eighths inch wide, extending three-eighthsinch above the surface. Fig. 3 repre- sents a cross section of a small one of these water lenticels (2). It will at once become evident that we have here a modified lenticel. A meristem (7) forms beneath the epidermis, before the appearance of the phellogen layer, which gives rise to the ordi- nary ‘‘ Fillzellen”’ (/'). These are formed in rapid succession until the epidermis bursts. The activity of the meristem con- tinues, pushing out large masses of these cells, which finally appear as a column between the two lips of the Ienticel, the ruptured ends of the epidermis. Meanwhile the phellogen layer (phe/) has formed and has given rise to the periderm (gerd). Our figure shows a series of periderm cells formed, which are being crowded back by the rapidly increasing number of cork cells. The latter are filled with air, giving the whole mass its white appearance. The growth of these structures continues, several unite, and then more, and we have at last long patches of this tissue of loosely connected cells extending all over the stem, leaving but little of the original bark (see Fig. 1) in position ; it would take but little to form a continuous layer around such a stem, produc- 102 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ing not peridermal cells, which resist the entrance ofair, but a tissue exceptionally well fitted for the absorption of oxygen. The water lenticels are by no means confined to the stem, but are very often found on roots. Lenticels occur but rarely on roots, and then only sparingly. But here we find them produced abundantly. The submerged stems develop large numbers of long fibrous roots, which branch sparingly. The roots grow out horizontally, rarely into the mud below. On them the lenticels are found. They differ in no respect from those found on the stems, except perhaps in size. A noteworthy fact is that in many cases the adventitious roots produced by the stems break through these lenticels (Fig. 1, c), and sections show these roots growing directly toward a lenticel from their very differentiation. This directive influence of the lenticel on such roots has often been noted, but is especially striking here where the lenticel has assumed such large size. In addition to the water lenticels the Sambucus stem presents a modified cortex. The latter for some distance from the water consists of round cells filled with active protoplasm and numer- ous chlorophyll grains. The phellogen produces phelloderm cells (f/d.) and thus increases the thickness of the cortex. Intercellular spaces are few and comparatively small, even under a lenticel. As one goes down the stem towards the water, these spaces become larger. The cells of the cortex, still green and full of protoplasm, become separated, and in the lower portions they form a loose, spongy tissue, very different from the cortex further up the stem. Here, too, the cells are more numerous, and this, together with the air spaces, makes the cortex seem twice as thick. This gives the whole stem the appearance of being of so much greater diameter in the water. Fig. 3 represents a section taken near D, Fig. 1. Here the air spaces are quite marked (sf). They appear to originate near the phellogen layer, the new phelloderm cells parting from one another soon after their separation from the mother cell. It will be seen that this system of canals filled with air, thus closely surrounded by active protoplasmic cells, must insure to the fullest AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 103 extent the free diffusion of oxygen. Those passages are in close connection with the outside through the water lenticels, which offer little resistance to the available oxygen (Fig. 3). The exact manner in which the lenticels act to absorb the oxygen of the water is a problem yet to be solved. We have thus an arrangement whereby the stem is enabled to obtain oxygen in a manner both striking and efficient. It may be asked, is it proven that these structures function as respiratory organs? The fact does seem certain, as_ the large quantities of air in the spaces and their connection with the outside seem to indicate. Another proof is seen in the fact, that they are entirely absent in plants not growing in the water. In individuals of Sambucus Canadensis taken from dry soil, I was unable to find any indications of the large intercellular spaces or the large development of lenticels. Other shrubs and trees show similar changes. Cephalanthus Occidentalis is perhaps next in order. Its cortex shows spaces similar to those of Samducus (Fig. 4). In these we find individ- ual bast cells (4) torn away from the adjoining cells, some hang- ing loosely in the air space. The water lenticels are present in great numbers (Fig. 2), but differ in some respects from Sambucus. They are long, very narrow and occur in patches along the stem. The masses of ‘“ Fillzellen’’ extend further from the stem than those of Sambucus, sometimes as far as one inch from the bark. The roots of this plant were well supplied with lenticels. Some of the larger trees showed the water lenticels in large numbers. On the roots of Populus monilifera they protruded from among the many fibrous roots. These lenticels showed the lateral portions of the structure well formed. On the roots of Acer rubrum, on which I first noticed these organs, they are very Numerous, some 20 or 30 to the square inch. These are perennial. At the end of. one year the cork column is perhaps one-eighth inch high. A layer is then formed, similar to that in the ordinary lenticel, closing the opening. This is pushed out in spring, with the cork of the preceding year, and a new piece is added to the column. This process may continue for many 104 PROCEEDINGS OF THE years, so that an old root presents a peculiar appearance, especi- ally in quiet water where the cork columns are not broken by the flow of water against them. How many other plants may show these modifications one can- not tell, but I am confident that many more than we are at present aware of, will, upon close -examination, prove to possess to a greater or less extent adaptation furthering respiration. The cases noted, especially Sambucus and Lycopus, show a plasticity of organization which seems striking. It would seem that to effect a change so marked upon a species, it would necessitate the continued action of the environment upon individuals. But here we have instances of plants responding to this action in the short space of two months or less. Exactly how soon this influence would make itself felt experimental evidence must bring forth. Individuals should be grown under different conditions of moisture, and hence of exclusion of oxygen, and the result ought to explain some of the questions concerning which we are stillin doubt. The function of respiration has often been under- estimated, and it seems that modifications of this kind would tend to emphasize the necessity of this function for the perform- ance of the life activities. When plants of such different organi- zations produce changes of this kind, so marked and so con- stant, the importance of the end striven for must be recognized. AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 105 pIbLIOGRALTEY Shaler, N. S.—Notes on Taxodium distichum. Science, 1883. Schenck, H.—Uber das Aerenchyma, ein dem Kork homologes Gewebe bei Sumpfpflanzen. Pringsh. Jahrb. f. Wiss. Bot., Bd. XX., 1889 p. 526, Schrenk, J.—On the floating tissue of Nescea Verticillata. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, Vol. XVI., 1889, p. 315. Wilson, W. P.—The production of aérating organs on the roots of swamp and other plants. Proc. Am. Acad. Nat. Science, Philadelphia, 1889. Rowlee, W. W.—The Aération of Organs and Tissues in Mikania and other Phanerogams. Proc. Am. Micros. Soc., XV., p. 148. (NotTe.—In this paper will be found a full list of papers relating to this subject.) EXPLANATION OF PLATES. — G57) DURES eter Fig. I. Sambucus Canadensis, Ts; base of stem with wa A-B, water level; L, lenticels, C, root growing from a lentice x Ss = PEAT i Av. 8. aD Nat DEL ’ ‘ im Af . j * v= - ‘ a, ‘ | _ 108 | PROCEEDINGS. PLATE II. Fig. I. Cephalanthus Occidentalis, L., base of stem showing upturned bark (B); at A some of the cork columns are seen projecting out from the stem; C, root with water lenticels. x PEATE, It: sy oP — ai a bm xe) PROCEEDINGS. PLATE Ill. Fig. Ill. Sambucus Canadensis, L.—transverse section through a water lenticel (about D, Fig.1). , ‘‘Fiillzellen;” m, lenticel meristem; perd, periderm; p/el, phellogen; phd, phelloderm; sp, air spaces; 0, bast cells; ¢, cambium; w, wood. can Fig. IV. Cephalanthus Occidentalis.—Section taken immediately jinside a water lenticel showing the air spaces, sp, with isolated bast cells, b. Pia hia ie l 4 If i i al pal ooh) Hy S. swat vex SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE MOUTH PARTS AND OVIPOSITOR OF CICADA SEPTENDECI/1. Proressor J. D. Hyatt, New Rochelle, N. Y. The year 1894, being the seventeenth since the last appearance of this insect in the vicinity of New York, the 25th of May seems to have been the day unanimously agreed upon by the broods in this neighborhood to leave their subterranean abodes and emerge to the light of day. Although some skirmishers were seen in the woods a day or two before, and many camp followers continued to appear above ground after that date, yet the main army consisting of incalcu- lable myriads came forth on the night preceding the 25th day of May, and for several weeks they swarmed in certain localities, over the trees, shrubs and foliage of all kinds. It is not my purpose to describe this curious insect, or its habits, as such description with its life history may be found in any elementary work on entomology, but during its prevalence alarming reports were frequently made in the newspapers of the great damage done to crops, and to fruit and forest trees, by the seventeen-year locust, and as nobody contradicted these state- ments, the newspaper reporters manufactured ‘and _ published circumstantial accounts of persons, preferably children, who had lost their lives by being bitten or stung by these ‘“‘ venomous insects.” While fully aware that these reports were purely imaginary and sensational, my curiosity was stimulated to make a microscopical examination of the “ biting and stinging ”’ organs of Cicada, an additional motive being the opportunity, which occurs at such long intervals, of obtaining abundant material for the study. It is hardly necessary to say that after handling and examining hundreds of specimens, and carefully studying their habits, I found no evidence that they ever bite or sting, or that after DL PROCEEDINGS OF THE reaching the winged state they ever do the slightest injury to vegetation of any kind, but as I had never seen a description of the mcroscopical appearance of the mouth parts and ovipositor, I spent much time in making a careful examination of them, the sections notably showing some curious features. As this insect belongs to the natural order Hemiptera, the mouth parts in a general way are typical of that order, the mandibles and maxillz being drawn out into greatly lengthened stylets or setee and enclosed in the labium. Fig. I represents the extremity of the labium enclosing the four slightly projecting stylets, x 120. (To show the lengths of these parts under the same ampli- fication, it would be necessary to make the drawing 30 inches long.)* The outer hooked pieces serve as anchors, which being inserted into the tissues of a plant afford a leverage for forcing in the two central stylets, which together form a sucking tube. Fig. 2 is a transverse section through the labium and the four stylets, showing the very curious manner in which a tube is formed by holding in juxtaposition the two inner grooved pieces and closing the laps by the outer pieces of the same sectional form, all being held firmly together by the muscular labium which is closely wrapped around them. This will be easily understood by an inspection of sections of the four stylets as seen in the lower figures. While the mouth parts of Cicada are perfectly adapted to the purpose of sucking the juices of plants, yet in the examination of thousands that I have seen upon cherry, pear and other trees I have never been able to discover one in the act of feeding, either on the fruit or foliage. The ovipositor is the instrument used by the female for making incisions in the twigs of trees in which to deposit her eggs. It consists of three parts, the two outer ones being tubular with an opening near the extremity, through which the eggs are extruded into the channel cut for their reception. They are *(The original drawings were reduced one-third by the engraver.—ED.) AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 113 pointed at the ends, and a little anterior to the extremity are somewhat enlarged and set with sharp teeth like a rasp, which — extends spirally around the teeth pointing backwards. Fig. 3 represents one of these saws, a being the outlet of the oviduct which opens inward or toward the central piece. The central piece which serves to hold the two Ovipositor Saws in place and guide them in their movements, ends in two extremely sharp points slightly curved outward. The insect in cutting the channel for her eggs closes her legs around the twig and forcing in the ovipositer saws beneath the bark and into the soft sap wood, works them rapidly backward and forward cutting loose but not removing the wood fiber. In doing this the outward curves of the central piece causes the saws to spread so that she cuts at the same time two channels, which diverge from the entrance, leaving a ridge of solid wood between the two, nearly a tenth of an inch wide at the extremity, while the channels closely approximate at the entrance. After finishing the cut, which is about three-tenths of an inch in length, she withdraws the ovipositor, and forcing it in at the 8 114 PROCEEDINGS OF THE first entrance to the greatest depth proceeds to deposit the eggs, which are placed very symmetrically in pairs obliquely to the middle partition, a little cavity being cut for each egg, into which it exactly fits. The eggs are about 15 in number on each side. As these insects are not at all timid, I was able to watch this process with a large lens. The extremely curious mechanism by which these processes are accomplished will be easily understood by inspecting Fig. 4, which is a section of the three pieces constituting the ovipositer, in which aa is the central piece, having on each side, through- out its length, a projecting rail or guide-bar which exactly fits into a groove of similiar shape in the ovipositor; 0d are the oviducts, which are bounded on the exterior side by a chitinous frame, and have for their interior boundary the same material for a short distance above the Z7-shaped groove, but this thins out into what is evidently a muscular or contractile tissue above. The two ovipositors are held together along their outer edges by a peculiar pair of folds, which in section resemble a strong hook on one side, grasped by a hand and thumb on the other. As the insect, in cutting the groove for her eggs, sometimes spreads her ovipositors widely apart, and sometimes uses them close together, it is evident that she has the power at will to open the hand seen on the left, or close it in the hook, as the particular stage of the process may require. ‘THE LATERAL LINE SYSTEM OF SENSE ORGANS IN SOME AMERICAN AMPHIBIA, AND COMPARISON WITH THE DIPNOANS. B. F. Kincssury, Pu. D., Defiance, O., Fellow in Vertebrate Zoilogy at Cornell University. The general structure of the individual sense organs is ‘well known, and their distribution has been worked out for a con- siderable number of the Amphibia. The availability of many Urodeles, some of them important and isolated forms, as Amphiuma and Siren, led to a study of the distribution of the organs in eight of the tailed Amphibia on which nothing had been published, with the purpose of determining their presence and the plan of distribution. A comparison with the condition in the Dipnoans, Lepidosiren and Protopterus was made, and they were added to the Amphibia first studied. Most of the specimens studied were in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of Cornell University, and for the privilege of examining them I am indebted to Professor B. G. Wilder, Curator. Considerable material, also, belonging to Professor S. H. Gage was placed at my disposal by him, to whom also I am indebted for numerous suggestions and kindly interest in my work. To the distinctive features of the Ichthyopsida, or fish-like vertebrates, enumerated by Huxley when he first pointed out the natural provinces in which the Vertebrata. were grouped, there might be added, since 1876, that system of sense organs which, with the canals in which it is often enclosed, has been variously spoken of in the literature of science as the muciparous canals, lateral line system of sense organs, organs of a sixth sense, branchial sense organs, etc. It is but lately that the importance of these sense organs has begun to be fully estimated, and more careful observations have been made upon certain of the forms. The literature upon the subject is voluminous, but 116 PROCEEDINGS OF THE despite the fact that so much has been written, except in the three or four most recent contributions, especially those of Ewart, ’92, and Allis, 89, there has been no account of this system at all complete for any form, This is due largely to the fact that attention has been mainly confined to a study of the canals. and their branches rather than the structure, distribution and innervation of the organs themselves—which is indeed very much like attempting to understand the oyster or snail from a. study of its shell alone. The first-recorded observations upon the system were made. by Stenonis, in 1664, upon the canals in a species of skate. From that time the system attracted more or less attention. Lorenzini and Monro secundus may be mentioned as two of the more important early contributors. By most of the first writers. the function of the system was regarded to be the secretion of mucus and its distribution over the body of the fish. Jacobson; in 1813 first arrived at the conclusion that the system of canals constituted a sensory organ for the purpose of transmitting the vibrations of the water to the nerves, as he believed. However, it was not until Leydig in 1850 discovered the sense organs themselves and made microscopic examination of them that the step in the right direction was made, and a morphologic basis given for the theory of the sensory function of the system. His final and most complete account of the system appeared in. 1868, upon the ‘‘ Organs of a sixth sense” as he regarded them. Since 1813, among others who worked upon this system in fishes may be mentioned De Blainville, Robin, McDonnell, Schulze, Bodenstein, Solger, Wright, Fritsch, Beard, Garman, Allis, Guitel, Ewart, Pollard and Collinge; especially important are the researches of Allis, Guitel, Ewart and Pollard, by whom the distribution of the sense organs in the canals, their relation to the pores by which the canals communicate with the exterior, and the innervation, have been quite thoroughly worked up in the forms investigated by them, namely, Amza, Lophius, Laemargus and Raia; Pollard has also compared the distribution of the organs in five Nematognaths with a view of determining AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 117 their taxonomic value. Garman has studied the canals in many Elasmobranchs and in the Holocephala chiefly to ascertain their value in classification ; for a more detailed account of the early literature of the subject and the views and results of the various writers Garman’s paper should be consulted ; upon this the above account of the early history of the subject is based. Much still remains to be done on the system, especially among the Teleosts where theré is a considerable variation in its development, which, in connection with the wide range in life- habits, may afford some clue to the function and importance of these sense organs. The modifications of the bones of the skull due to the presence of the canals and the possible bearing it may have on the origin of the vertebrate ear, demand that far more exhaustive study be bestowed upon them than has been up to the present. Particularly valuable will be careful and thorough investigations upon the early appearance and develop- ment of the system. Merkel, in his monograph upon the nerve-terminations in the skin, recognized two classes of related cutaneous sense organs which he termed end-buds (Endknospen) and _ nerve-hillocks ( Nervenhigel), and to the latter belong the organs of the lateral line system. For nerve-hillock, the monomym xeuromast proposed by Wright is preferably employed. The end-buds are found in fishes distributed in the skin, par- ticularly of the head, and in the mouth cavity where, in the higher vertebrates, they appear as the taste-bulbs. They are situated upon papillz of the cutis and are formed of long rod-like cells extending throughout the height of the bulb. In “ fishes” they are always flush with the surface of the epithelium or even project beyond it. When situated in the skin they appear to be tactile organs; in the catfish the long barbels around the mouth appear to be little else. than carriers of these sense organs (Wright). With the neuromasts, on the other hand, there is a differentia- tion of certain of the cells, some of them being conical, pear- shaped and short, but bearing a more or less distinct bristle ; 118 PROCEEDINGS OF THE furthermore, the neuromasts evince a tendency to withdraw themselves from the surface. This tendency is carried to an extreme in the majority of “fishes” in which the lines of sense organs, which constitute the lateral line system proper, sink beneath the surface and occupy canals which open upon the skin, by means of pores, generally between the sense organs. Com- plications may be yet increased by enclosures of the canals in bone, as if for protection, and the pores may become many times divided, producing seemingly the effect of still further withdrawal of the sense organs from the exterior. Examples of this last occur in Ama and the Clupeide. Again, in other forms, the organs of the lateral line system simply occupy pits in the epider- mis, or are contained in an open groove; examples of each are Lophius and Chimera. In ‘“ fishes”’ the typical arrangement of the canals or lines is. (1) one along the side of the trunk, causing the well-known lateral line. When scales and a canal are present it perforates each scale obliquely, and a sense organ and pore generally occur in each. The organs of this group are innervated by the lateral nerve, often spoken of as the lateral branch of the vagus. There are four lines on each side upon the head; (1) one above the eye,, the supra-orbital, innervated by the ophthalmicus superficialis VII.; (2) below the eye, the infra-orbital, innervated by the buccal branch of the seventh nerve; (3) the mandibular or hyo- mandibular, upon the lower jaw, innervated by the hyomandi- bular branch of the seventh, and (4) a transverse line in the occipi- tal region which meets its opposite, thus uniting the system on the two sides, and belongs to the lateral system. These lines may either be independent of each other or connected. Accessory lateral lines may be present, which in one genus (Mzgii, McDonnell) reach the number of nine; lines of neuromasts may also be present in the skin of the head and trunk in addition to the typical lines, and a study of their distribution will doubtless afford a clue to the origin of the accessory lateral lines and explain departures from the type, which, because of their greater development, were more readily observed. AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 119 In 1861, eleven years after the sense organs in the canals of | fishes had been discovered, Schulze, 61, reported the presence of homologous sense organs in branchiate Amphibia. In this class (the Amphibia) the neuromasts retain their simple primitive condition and remain in the skin, but slightly, if at all, withdrawn beneath the surface. Since the first discovery of these organs in Amphibia, there have been made, as far as I can ascertain, but half a dozen or so communications upon the subject by six investigators, namely, Leydig, Schulze, Langerhans, Bugnion, Malbranc and Wiedersheim. Leydig’s more complete discussion is given in his last article to which I have not had access. Of the others Malbranc’s paper is by far the most exhaustive, being a study of the structure and distributions of the sense organs in Proteus, Menopoma, Triton, Salamandra and Salamandrina, and the tadpoles of the anura Lombinator, Pipa and Rana. Wieders- heim makes the important statement that in Aszdblystoma and Salamandrina the sense organs become covered with epidermal cells during the period of terrestrial existence and are again uncovered when the life in the water is resumed. To the above should be added Cope,* who, though he evidently did not recognize the presence of this system of sense organs in the Amphibia, speaks of the depressions which mark the location of the organs as ‘“‘ mucous pores,’’ and describes their location for a wide range of urodeles and has given figures showing the distri- bution in a number, which, however, since he does not recognize that they were more than ‘“‘ mucous pores,” are often inadequate. There exist in the adult of Sa/amandra, which is a land form, “pores” upon the dorsal side of the head in the region of the so-called parotid gland of certain Amphibia, and upon the body in two rows, occupying in general much the same position as two of the lines in the sense organs did in the larva. They have nothing to do with them, however, but are the openings of glands. Apparently Cope regarded the “ pores” which he found in so many forms as homologous with the gland openings in * Of eleven general articles and books upon the Amphibia examined, in five only was the presence of this system noted. 120 PROCEEDINGS OF THE Salamandra, and therefore termed them ‘“ mucous pores.” * * It is also possible he may have had in mind the pores by which the canals in fishes opened upon the surface; the sensory nature of the system had been too long known to admit of their being spoken of as ‘‘mucous pores” were fore itself not inappropriate in Amphibia if used in the same sense as in fishes. The original matter here consists mainly in a presentation of figures of the distribution of the organs in certain American urodeles and comparisons of them with each other and forms in which the distribution had been already investigated. Cope’s descriptions will be used to supplement my own for forms in which the system exists and which have not been accessible. The purpose is to ascertain the presence of this system and determine what may be the typical distribution of the organs for Amphibia. | In examining the distribution in Amphibia a comparison with other Ichthyopsida is inevitable, and as far as possible the names which have been applied to the lines in “fishes” will be employed here. The only lines whose homology with those in teleosts, ganoids and elasmobranchs is unmistakable are the lateral lines and the lines above and below the eye, which are accordingly spoken of as the supra and infra-orbital lines respectively. The lines upon the side and venter of the head are not so easily com- pared. They are doubtless innervated by the same branch of the seventh (mental, Strong) and represent the hyomandibular canal * * The close resemblance between the distribution of the sense organs in the larva and the ‘‘pores” in the adult Salamandra, caused Leydig to advance the rather remarkable theory that at transformation the sense organs became changed into large glands. Undoubtedly, however, the similarity in location is merely coincidence, and the sense organs in the larva perish and are at the time succeeded independently by the glands, Leydig’s words are: ‘‘Nachdem geschwanzte und ungeschwanzte Batrachier aus Kiemenathmern zu Lungenathmern geworden sind, haben sich die Organe der Larven zu den grossen Hautdriisen des Kopfes und der Seitenlinien umgebildet, welche auch jetz noch durch die Art des Secretes und dadurch, dass zahlreiche Nerven an die Gegenden, wo sie liegen, herantreten, von gewéhnlichen Hautdriisen sich verschieden verhalten” (Malbranc), AMERICAN MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. Be system of fishes, with any associated lines of free neuromasts there may be. For convenience in description I shall use some > locative terms employed by Garman in Elasmobranchs, even though it is not demonstrated at least, that the lines in the two classes are homologous, though occupying much the same regions.* They are therefore only provisional. Proteide. Of the two existing genera of this family, Proteus of Europe has been studied by Bugnion and Malbranc; figures I—3 and 16 show the distribution of the neuromasts in Wecturus. Comparison of these two genera shows the conditions strikingly alike, the chief difference seeming to be due to the more elon- gated form of the head in Proteus. The organs in that genus are described by Bugnion as occurring in groups, occupying linear depressions in the epidermis. These groups again are associated together in lines or series upon the body. Bugnion recognized upon the lower jaw, “lignes divergentes,’”’ “series marginales,’’ and between them “ groupes obliques ;’’ upon the side of the head groups which converge toward the corner of the mouth ; upon the dorsal side of the head a line above the eye terminating in a cluster dorsad and cephalad of the prenares (groupe nasal anterieur), and also a cluster of groups caudad and ventrad of the nostril (groupe nasal et posterieur). In the occipital region of the head is an aggregation of groups which is continuous with the lateral line. A ventral line passes ventrad of the arms and terminates in the region of the legs. A dorsal corporal line of groups transverse to the long axis of the body was also recognized by Malbranc. The number of individual organs in each group varied from four to eight. * The true homology of the lines, it is felt, is determinable by the nerve supply. Tested in this way, Ewart finds for the lines in Teleosts the follow- ing equivalents in Elasmobranchs, the canals of the latter being given as named by Garman: Infra-orbital=orbital, sub-orbital, orbito-nasal, nasal, half of median and prenasal canals; supra-orbital—cranial, rostral and sub-rostral; hyomandibular=angular, jugular, oral, sub-pleural and pleural. There exists the possibility that some of the lines in sharks repre- sent lines of neuromasts existing free in the skin in the teleosts, which have not been recognized. 122 PROCEEDINGS OF THE Though his figures show a very close resemblance, the less. elongated head of (Vecturus permits a better idea of the arrange- ment. Upon the dorsum of the head in Wecturus there exists caudad of each eye a cluster of groups which is divided into two lines, one of which passes dorsad, the other ventrad of the eye, the supra-orbital and infra-orbital lines. Fig. 2 requires but little supplementary description ; many of the groups, especially cephalad of the eye, are oblique, and upon the snout their arrangement is as if radiating from a common center (Fig. 1). — In the occipital region of the head is a triangle of groups con- tinuous caudad with the lateral line; two or three groups form a short transverse series suggesting an occipital line. Upon the venter of the head (Fig. 3) are readily recognized the lines of Buenion ; lines of groups diverging from the corner of the lower lip toward the latero-caudal corner of the head, the gular lines, a line along the margin of the lower lip, which approaches the cular line at its cephalic end and will be spoken of as the oral line. Associated with the groups of these lines whose direction corresponds to that of the line are others which are transverse or oblique (groupes obliques of Bugnion). Upon the side of the head (Fig. 1) may be recognized (1) a line of somewhat oblique groups from the infra-orbital caudad of the angle of the mouth to the oral line; (2) a line of groups from the corner of the mouth to the caudal end of the gular line, and (3) a trend of groups from the throat where the gular line terminates caudally toward the infra-orbital, communicating also with the occipital group. These will be termed the angular, jugular and post- orbital lines or series respectively. Upon the trunk the three lines are present. The lateral line is composed of longitudinal groups and extends from the occipi- tal region nearly or quite to the end of the tail. The ventral line curves around ventrad of the arms and extends to the region of the vent ; it is not continuous with any of the groups on the head. A dorsal line of transverse groups was present, though apparently weak. However, the tendency of the skin to form little transverse furrows and folds rendered it difficult to determine AMERICAN MICROS COPI CAL SOCIETY. 123 the precise conditions existing ; doubtless other groups in addi- tion to those shown in the figure exist and were not detected. The organs in each group varied in number from six to eight. Cryptobranchide. The distribution in Cryptobranchus alle- ghaniensis has been heretofore described and figured by both Malbrane and Cope, and my own observations can little more than add confirmation. In this form the organs open by circular or oblong pores upon elongated dermal papillz (Fig. 40), which they thus divide into two, reminding one at once of the “Spalt-Papillen” of Fritsch in the ray, containing free neuromasts in the skin, and the papillze in the skin of the lamprey which are similarly halved by a slit-like depression at the bottom of which a sense organ is situated.* Though the orifices are rarely oblong the tendency of the organ corresponding to the groups in Vecturus is believed to be, as in the “ Spalt-Papillen,” trans- verse to the papilla, and in the single diagram of the venter of the head introduced for comparison, this is so indicated by a short line (Fig. 40). This being the case, the tendency of the organs in Cryptobranchus and the direction of the groups in Wecturus correspond. The three corporal lines occur as follows: The dorsal line is weak and is represented by about ten or twelve transverse organs, and extends to about the level of the end of the abdomen. The ventral line contains about 36 organs ; it extends from just cephalad of the legs, where it curves in toward the meson, to cephalad of the arms, passing ventrad of them and curving dorsad to end in a short transverse line. It occupies a position ventrad of the lateral fold present in Cryptobranchus. The lateral line lies just * The distribution of these organs in Petromyzon planeri has been figured and described by Langerhans, who regards them, and correctly it is thought, as homologous with the lateral line sense organs. They arearranged in lines upon the head which are difficult to homologize with those in higher forms. Upon the body Langerhans recognizes dorsal, lateral and ventral lines, of which the first two are evident, the ventral is short and possibly may not be a corporeal line. The histologic structure of the organs in the Lamprey seems not to have received sufficiently accurate investigation, and on the nerve supply practically nothing has been done; it would offer an interesting and important, though rather difficult, research. 124 PROCEEDINGS OF THE dorsad of this fold and extends to the tip of the tail. Upon the head it seems to connect with the post-orbital series. Upon the ventrad aspect of the head the gular and oral lines are well developed, the latter covered for a portion of its dis- tance by a labial fold. The former is accompanied by the usual transverse organs and extends upon and over the lateral fold upon the head. On the ventral side of this fold a double line of twelve or fourteen organs extend from the gular to the corner of the mouth (jugular). Upon the dorsal side of the fold there is a trend of organs cephalad to the orbital group, which appears to represent the post-orbital series. The eye is surrounded by the customary series of organs, which cephalad of it are so thickly placed that from the material at hand it was impossible to reduce them to a system. Some were parallel and some transverse or oblique to the assumed trend of the lines. An angular passing around the corner of the mouth to the oral was present. . Microscopic examination shows the neuromasts in C7yffo- branchus much larger than in WVecturus, though of the same typical structure; compared with Wecturus they are also much fewer, one organ in Cryptobranchus more nearly representing a group in WVecturus. Amblystomatide. Of the genus Ambdblystoma, species pune- tatum, both larval and adult forms were examined and the dis- tribution of the sense organs is given in Figs. 4-11, 17, 19, 33 and 36.